Review : My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Pages : 394
Genre : YA, Contemporary
Stand alone
My Rating : 3.5/5
About the Book :
As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase’s family embraces Samantha – even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha’s world. She’s suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?
My Thoughts :
Last year I read Huntley Fitzpatrick’s What I Thought Was True and I was, unfortunately, a bit disappointed. Without being bad, the book failed to come together for me and I was left slightly unimpressed. Still, I love giving authors second chances, especially when I enjoyed aspects of their writing. In this case, I’m really glad I did since My Life Next Door turned out a much better reading experience.
One of the things Huntley Fitzpatrick does with talent is writing great, believable and easy to differentiate characters. Samantha has her own unique voice, but all of the characters she meets do, too. Which is great, considering that her love interest has no less than 7 siblings! I loved meeting all of them, the siblings and the people in Samantha’s life, and I felt like I had a good sense of them even when they were minor characters. Family, friends, colleagues: they jumped off the page like colorful movie characters.
Unlike other YA romances, this one starts from the first few pages. There’s very little will-they-won’t-they between Jase and Samantha, and instead the story is more about how their relationship progresses. I thought the two had great chemistry. Their banter was cute and got a few laughs out of me! And again, as in the author’s other novel, I really appreciated her approach on sexuality. It’s refreshing and realistic, and it doesn’t gloss over anything. I feel like a lot of authors avoid the subject or go around it, fade-to-black style, rather than talking about it. Here the discussion felt natural without feeling like an included lesson.
I was a bit annoyed though, that the big “unthinkable” event announced by the synopsis doesn’t happen until the last third of the book. This means that the first two thirds are mostly about Samatha and Jase, with a few hints of what’s coming. There’s a lot (too much) of kissing, making out, just chit chatting and stuff… and while these moments are all cute and fun, it reached a point where I wondered Where is this going? What’s the point of this book? I also felt like the event and its consequences were a bit rushed. It could have been a full story by itself, with a lot of great questions and opportunities for the characters to grow; but all of this is squeezed in the last third of the book, and I didn’t get as much from it as I would have wanted to.
All in all though, My Life Next Door turned out to be a pleasant surprise. And I got a little excited when I realised that the author’s next novel, The Boy Most Likely To, will feature different characters from the same world. There were many aspects and characters I would have loved to know more about, and I think this will be a great opportunity to.
It sounds like it was a slow build up but worth reading.