Book Review: 'Saving Ivy' by Emily Reilly | Olivia J

"Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use,"

-Mark Twain

It's strange, but I think I read indie author books faster sometimes. Or maybe it's because this one was a contemporary. 

But alas, this is yet another indie book review! I don't think I'll ever get tired of reading work from my peers.

Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much Emily, you should totally follow her on Instagram @emreilly!

Spoilers, duh. 

TW: Saving Ivy deals with heavy topics, including but not limited to: self-harm, abuse, rape, violence, and suicide. You need to go into this book with the right mindset. If you have suicidal tendencies, DO NOT read this book. 

The Bad

1. The Writing

This has two main points, so I shall break it up for ease. 

      a. Thoughts In Italics

Reilly's writing heavily employs a tactic where the literal thoughts that run through a character's head are included in the prose and then italicized. 

When used sparingly, they can be very effective. However, instead of using word choice, syntax, or dialogue to convey thoughts and emotions, Reilly relies on clipped words or phrases to express what the character is thinking or feeling. The overuse of it quickly begins to feel juvenile, and borders on telling instead of showing. 

      b. Development of Different POVs

Saving Ivy has at least four different point-of-views, but the story is mostly told through Ivy, Aunt Wiley, and Joseph's point of view.

As someone who mostly writes in first person dual or multiple perspective POVs, I feel that I can come from a place of experience and offer some critique but also advice. I've been writing with multiple perspectives since 2013 - that doesn't make me an expert by any means, but it does mean that I know what I'm talking about to some extent. 

The trick with writing multiple perspectives is voice. I mean, you as a writer and also the POV character should have their own distinct voice even if you're writing one POV. 

However, it's even more important that you develop strong character voices in a story with more than one POV characters. It just makes sense from a literal perspective: all humans think differently. We all use different syntax, we have different levels of vocabulary; what we say and how we say it varies greatly from person to person. 

In order to develop this, you have to consider so many things about the character: How old are they? What is their education level? What is their sense of humor like? What is their outlook on life? What region or part of the world are they from? All of these things influence a character's voice. 

The unfortunate problem is that Saving Ivy doesn't develop its POV character's voices. The writing style is virtually the same across Ivy, Aunt Wiley, and Joseph (although Joseph's voice is the most developed, I will give credit there).

The different POVs aren't confusing because you're not sure who's speaking - because the reader can deduce that from the content - they're confusing because everyone sounds so similar. It makes the writing flat and less engaging, as well as not allowing us to fully get into the POV character's head. Part of immersing the reader in the character is being able to see how that character thinks, perceives, and feels. Saving Ivy severely lacked the proper development of the three POVs in order to make them distinct and engaging. 

2. Lack of Complexity

Stories - and their levels of complexity - change in order to fit the target audience. Middle-grade books have more character depth, plot development, and tackle deeper issues than simple chapter books. Young Adult books take everything from MG and dig even deeper, and tailor the subject matter to fit the audience. Adult fiction is often the deepest and most complex of all fiction, mostly because adults are fully developed and can comprehend all of the subtlety, nuance, and complexity contained in adult fiction. Sure, there's some overlap, but as a general rule, there are specific ranges and levels for how complex an age-range of stories is. 

However, despite the content, Saving Ivy reads more like a middle-grade novel in terms of development and complexity. What makes YA so subversive is that it has the capability to be as complex as some adult fiction, while still catering to a younger demographic. What I mean by complexity is the ability to portray many different things in the context of one story, and the ability to interweave and connect multiple story threads while furthering the character arcs and plot. 

In Saving Ivy, there's not much going on. There's kind of just this one plotline of the interactions between Joseph, Wiley, and Ivy - and a few other small things thrown in. I feel like this has to do with the length of the book. Everything is kind of right on the surface. There's not much subtext, and the entirety of the plot, themes, and character development is right there in front of you. The story doesn't have many levels - each scene furthers one aspect of the plot. With some more character arcs and subplots thrown in, Saving Ivy would have had much more development and complexity. 


The Good

1. The Flashbacks (& some of the writing)

I'm a sucker for some good flashbacks - *cough* A Cactus In the Valley *cough* Lost. And the flashbacks in Saving Ivy were done so well and added so much to the story and the characters. They were short, but packed such an impactful and significant punch. It was like looking through a keyhole, but still able to see all that you needed without the flashbacks interrupting the story or dragging it down. There was more implied backstory, and I feel that this worked in favor of the narrative to balance out some of the heavier subject matter and depressing tone of the book. Reilly could have easily packed in the long sob-backstories, but she chose to make them short and sweet (in the colloquial sense of the last word). 

Now, based on the critiques I've made of Reilly's writing, it would be safe to assume that I think that Reilly is not a good writer. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. There were some passages and some lines in Saving Ivy that took my breath away, that forced me to reconsider things, and absolutely pulled me in with the unique descriptions. Reilly's moments of literary brilliance deserve just as much recognition. 

2.  Portrayal of Mental Illness

Now, before you all come at me with your pitchforks about last week's blog post, hear me out. I came into this book with the right expectations, and that greatly influenced my enjoyment and reception of Saving Ivy. 

Saving Ivy is not a happy book. It's very depressing, and I think it's important that you go into this book with that mindset. I suppose the title of 'Saving' Ivy is misleading, but that's neither here nor there. 

However, what Saving Ivy does right is that it shows how mental illness and strong emotions can warp someone's sense of reality and their ability to think clearly. That's why it's mental illness. So no, I don't berate or criticize Reilly for portraying Ivy's suicide as 'saving' her or as her finally finding peace, because for many people, they are deluded to believe that suicide is their only way out. They truly do believe that suicide will stop their pain. 

Reilly successfully portrayed the mind of a suicidal person, and how that kind of thinking can warp one's perception. I think that if you go into this book with the right mindset, and with this in mind, the suicide, as well as all of the other mental health topics discussed in the book, will not seem like a cop-out or as a harmful portrayal. 

Saving Ivy can be compared to works like Manchester by the Sea or Les Miserables - although these words are mammoths in comparison to Saving Ivy, they all are super depressing with somewhat hollow endings. And I feel that we need stories like this to balance out the tendency for all stories to end happily, or, rather, for all stories to have their conflicts tied up in a pretty bow. Because life doesn't work like that - sometimes bad things happen over and over and over and sometimes people die and sometimes conflicts never get resolved. I greatly commend Reilly for tackling this concept. 

~

Final Thoughts: While fundamentally flawed at points, Saving Ivy shows Reilly's literary prowess through her use of flashbacks and tackling of deeply emotional and less discussed topics. What holds the novel back are its lack of strong POV voices. Despite this, I enjoy the genre and subject matter of Saving Ivy, so for that I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading Reilly's work.  

Objective Rating: 6.5/10

Enjoyment Level: 7/10

~The WordShaker