Wanderlove by
Kirsten Hubbard My rating:
4 of 5 stars 3.5 stars. Who doesn't want the idea of traveling and leaving everything behind, when life becomes too tough? .
A story on making mistakes and growing up. Of fear and its confrontation. Of distrust and forgiveness. Of losing hope and gaining it again. It's a young adult novel that aims at your heartstrings, amidst a sea of dystopia and saccharine. It doesn't depend on fantasy for it to be interesting. It doesn't beautify and falsify ideas; it tells the story the way it should be told. Admittedly, there are more profound stories out there, but "Wanderlove" holds its own as a young adult novel.
I love that it's not too fluff-y or dramatic. The characters have burns and scars, which they hide beneath their armors, without broadcasting, "Woe is me". I also like how they established the relationship - slow and without that sudden "BAM", just the way that characters who are 'healing' should form relationships.
I just can't happily give it 4 stars, though. Despite the fact that I liked the book, I still felt like there's an important piece missing. For me, it lacked that strong theme to hold the ideas together.
While there had been many character-building on Bria and there had been enough on Rowan, it felt like they weren't enough, like there's too much but there's nothing that stuck out (even Rowan's unquestionable and unconditional reliability was scratched at the end. Fine, maybe he believed Bria could make the trip, but more than that, it felt like he was just running away, since he didn't even give her time to think about things)
Also, since the book relied on the manipulation of one's heartstrings, I looked for characters that grow on you despite their flaws. While the characters had foundations, there's nothing that had me thinking, "She did that? Figures". Even in the end, after all the past I've learned about them, it seemed like I didn't know them at all. Although, okay, fine, I'll excuse that part, since they're supposedly finding themselves and changing. Whatever. I'll try to ignore the part that people still have a distinct trait no matter how lost they are and that they cannot change who they really are, entirely.
But, the ending!
Sometimes, what you love the most is what you have to fight the hardest to keep.
Okay...
But why, oh why, do you have to be tested by the other person that way? Isn't there also a saying that goes, "If you love a person, you'll do anything for him, but if heloves you back, he'll never ask you to"? So, okay, for the sake of Bria's growth, Rowan's have to be regressed? After having all that talk about moving forward and forgetting the past - all that really boils down to is you leave everything behind, because you can't face them? Isn't giving Bria space just an excuse when you didn't even give her time?Wanderlove invokes the the idea of starting everything a new, but while it has the potential to draw empathy, there were times in which the excessive attempt hits a mark way beyond the target.
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