It’s been a while since I finished the book and I was hoping for it to grow on me eventually but seems like it never did. Maybe I come under an older gen than the target demographic? While reading I was reminded of The Perks of Being a Wallflower because it kinda felt similarly here but I liked that a tad bit more. It’s the unrelatable-ness of the experiences compiled with relatable feelings that kinda made it hard for me to fully immerse myself into the story. I loved Neo the most of all the characters presented. Neo & C were sweet together and it was heartbreaking to see each of the characters just die. Sam was never really ‘one’ of the characters for me like I think early on with the ‘I never left the hospital’ or something part, the thought just hit and kinda stayed. Idk how I feel about out the kind of ambiguity surrounding it all, I mean I’d have loved Sam to turn out to be Hope all along and how each of the others had a glimmer of hope within them until they passed on kinda thingy and like yeah each of the others had something associated with them like Coeur being heart and kindness etc idk like it just didn’t deliver all the way through for me? Or maybe a reread of the book at a different may do me good for I read most of this while visiting the hospital multiple times, especially the ER and all the buzz there and then coming to a book where a hospital’s represented but like feels a bit underwhelming being described or something. It’s one of those rare times where I really connect with certain lines but find it hard to love the book as a whole. I’ve rated it like a 3 right now and as heartless as this sounds, I couldn’t shed a tear reading although my heart did wrench itself a lot.
