Review: Me Since You by Laura Weiss

Me Since You

by Laura Weiss

MTV Books

Pub Date: Feb 18, 2014

Me Since You is about a girl named Rowan whose father is a police officer. When her father is called to the scene of a tragic crime, this sets in motion a chain of events that change Rowan’s life. While Rowan’s family is dealing with the consequences of that day, Rowan begins a romance with Ely, a boy who also happened to be at the scene of the crime. But then another tragic event occurs which separates Rowan’s life into BEFORE and AFTER.

Let me start off by saying that I found the premise of this novel fascinating. It’s hard to give a review for this one without giving any spoilers, so I apologize in advance for the vagueness. But I’ve never considered what it might be like for a police officer in a situation like this where he is called to stop a crime. Because of this situation, I really enjoyed the first part of the novel where Rowan’s family is dealing with the aftermath of this crime.

Ely. I absolutely adored Ely. He and Rowan’s budding relationship felt very authentic to me. And I really appreciated how Ely had an interesting (but sad) backstory that also directly related to the present story. If that makes any sense. Again, I’m going to be vague here.

Now here’s where I’m not so sure how I feel about the novel. The second tragic event (the one that the book’s blurb says separates Rowan’s life) occurs way later in the novel than I expected. I could see the event coming, but then it took so long to actually happen that I began to get confused as to what the story was even supposed to be about.

Aside from the timing/pacing issue, I personally didn’t enjoy the book as much after the event. I felt like the rest of the novel became a big pile of grief. Now, I think the author did a good job of realistically portraying Rowan’s grief. But for me, it was just too much of a downer. I guess because it seemed like the entire plot of the story just stopped. And Rowan grieved. And that was it. And then the plot just barely picked back up again at the end (thanks to Ely). So while I really enjoyed reading at least the first half of the book, the rest of it disappointed me.

I also feel like I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I began reading this book. Even the publisher’s summary is sort of vague to avoid spoilers. But I think if I had realized how this book was going to be ahead of time, I would have been prepared for a really sad read, and may not have had the same reaction to the sudden grief spiral.

So that’s all I have for you. Great setup, really strong writing, and then (at least for me) kind of a let down. Give it a try, though. Just be prepared for sadness.