The Year We Fell Apart - Emily Martin

The Year We Fell Apart by Emily Martin
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): Few things come as naturally to Harper as epic mistakes. In the past year she was kicked off the swim team, earned a reputation as Carson High’s easiest hook-up, and officially became the black sheep of her family. But her worst mistake was destroying her relationship with her best friend, Declan.
Now, after two semesters of silence, Declan is home from boarding school for the summer. Everything about him is different—he’s taller, stronger…more handsome. Harper has changed, too, especially in the wake of her mom’s cancer diagnosis.
While Declan wants nothing to do with Harper, he’s still Declan, her Declan, and the only person she wants to talk to about what’s really going on. But he’s also the one person she’s lost the right to seek comfort from.
As their mutual friends and shared histories draw them together again, Harper and Declan must decide which parts of their past are still salvageable, and which parts they’ll have to let go of once and for all. 

MY OPINION: **
Bonus Summer Reading Challenge #7: A book you ended up not liking

It’s been about a week since I finished this book, which hurts my heart because I used to be good with writing reviews on time. However, this summer has been both busy and too relaxing and I haven’t found the time or determination to write reviews. I am now two reviews behind and six books behind in general for my reading challenge. Therefore, don’t expect too much from this review.

I did not end up liking this book, for a variety of reasons. I had fairly high expectations for it because the blurb sounds exactly like something that I would generally read and enjoy. However, I was sorely disappointed by the outcome of this book.

The protagonist (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me—we’ll call her the MC) was so annoying and selfish and just irritating that I couldn’t bear to read from her perspective for long amounts of time. She’s labeled as the “easiest girl in her school to get”, meaning that she’s known for being easy to attain in a certain way by the boys of her school. She’s been best friends with two boys, one of which I don’t remember at all, OH WAIT ITS CORY OR SOMETHING, and the other of which is the romantic interest of the whole book named Declan.

Basically, the MC dated Declan back then. However, his mother passed away tragically in an accident and his depressed and quite awful father sent him away to a boarding school (I’m pretty sure) that’s far away from the MC. They were best friends who always liked each other but never acted on their feelings until freshman year (or something like that).

After Declan left, the MC decided to break up with him despite telling him that she would wait and they would make it work. I honestly do not remember why she decided to do this so it just have been so stupid that it wasn’t memorable. WAIT: I remember. She was involved in a scandal with another guy where she basically cheated on Declan and she said to herself that he was probably going to break up with her anyway and decided to break up with him and not tell him what she did. It’s really stupid. Her mother gets diagnosed with cancer and the MC often relates to Declan’s mother passing away as she deals with her feelings.

Then Declan comes back for the summer or something and all of a sudden he’s much hotter and better and just more awesome in the MC’s eyes. He doesn’t treat her in a rude way as you would expect since she dumped him out of the blue and she finds herself regretting her decisions and wanting him back, though he obviously is treating like an acquaintance and barely a friend.

Her mother and father are mad at her because she was involved in a scandal of sorts and they force her to take this photography summer class. And lo and behold, Declan’s in the class. In the class, she meets these two girls named Mackenzie and Gwen, who already know Declan from before for some forgotten reason. We proceed to see the MC’s jealousy as Declan seems to flirt with Mackenzie. She makes friends with them though and soon we learn that all of it was just a lie.

Basically, they get closer and closer over the summer and become friends and then she kisses him while drunk and regrets it. They talk about their pasts and in the end, we see how disgustingly jerky and awful Declan is. The things he says to her is unforgivable but guess what the dumbass forgives him. He slut shames her even though she’s a virgin and says other cruel things that are aimed specifically to hurt her.

Then they kiss and make up.

BOOM

That is the entirety of this book. I don’t want to hate on the author because obviously I know that writing a novel is hard but these characters were so stupid and rude to each other that I just couldn’t stand it. It made me frustrated and angry.

Two stars for some semi-cutesy scenes between Cory (idk if that’s actually his name) and Gwen and I guess some between Declan and MC when he’s not being an ass

I would recommend this book to readers looking for a generic contemporary read.

Main Character: Harper
Sidekick(s): Declan (I guess), Cory, Mackenzie, Gwen, etc
Villain(s): Misunderstandings, death, cancer, cheating, etc

Realistic Fiction Elements: All of this book was very real to life.