One by Sarah Crossan: Book review

One
Publisher/Year: August 27th 2015 Bloomsbury Children's
Genre: YA Contemporary/Poetry
Series: No
Pages: 448
Source/Format: e-arc | NetGalley
(Thanks NetGalley/Bloomsbury!)
Rating: 4 stars out of 5


I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affects my opinion.

*This review may contain spoilers!*

Synopsis

Grace and Tippi are twins – conjoined twins. 
And their lives are about to change.
No longer able to afford homeschooling, they must venture into the world – a world of stares, sneers and cruelty. Will they find more than that at school? Can they find real friends? And what about love?
But what neither Grace or Tippi realises is that a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead. A decision that could tear them apart. One that will change their lives even more than they ever imagined…

My review

I have to be honest, when I first realised that this book was written in verse, I was apprehensive as this would be my first time encountering it and as I'm not the biggest fan of poetry I didn't know how I would feel. However, I was a massive fan of it! It helped the writing to flow and I finished it in next to no time, despite the large number of pages.

I had never read a book about conjoined twins prior to this, but it has always been something I'd love to know more about, and this book gave a real insight into Grace and Tippi's day-to-day life, which is probably very realistic.

One thing I enjoyed about this book is how Crossan obviously writes Grace and Tippi very well, but also doesn't forget about the secondary characters, and seemingly puts as much effort into writing about them as she does the protagonists, which I appreciated as it showed how much she cares about her writing.

This book doesn't hold back when talking about the very real mental implications that being a conjoined twin comes with. I think this is something people forget as it is very easy to only realise what is staring you right in the face, the physical side of things, but that is not the whole story. One really opened up my eyes, and I'm sure many others too.

This book has made me very interested to pick up another in free verse, and I will certainly look out for what Sarah Crossan has in store next!

Izzy

Comments

  1. I'm not a fan of free verse wither, but Crossan's writing is just so beautiful! I read The Weight of Water recently - that's another good one of hers written in free verse and well worth a read.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hate at First Sight by Lizzie O'Hagan | Book Review

Severed Heads, Broken Hearts by Robyn Schneider: Book review

January 2024 Mini Reviews - part 3