Book Review: "Wait for Me" by Amy Jo Burns

Amy Jo Burns’ last book, Mercury, was one of my favorite books of 2024. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this and I’m grateful to Celadon Books and NetGalley for the complimentary advance copy.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t work as well for me as Mercury did, but it was an intriguing story. Marijohn is 18 years old in 1991, spending the summer working at her father’s gas station and writing songs she plays on her broken mandolin. Her best friend Lazarus is her cowriter, duet partner, and overall sidekick.

Marijohn’s father swears that he was the last person to see country music phenomenon Elle Harlow before she disappeared in 1973. He’s obsessed with keeping Elle’s legacy alive, and there’s a distinct possibility she could be Marijohn’s mother. She longs to know the truth.

The last night before Lazarus leaves for college, Marijohn is determined to tell him she loves him. But when a meteor strikes their town that night, it changes the course of everything, and brings secrets long hidden to the surface.

The book shifts to Elle’s story for a bit. We see her apprenticing to a healer, craving a musical career, and feeling unloved and unsupported. Her story shows that talent can flourish anywhere.

I felt like a lot of the dialogue in the book, particularly where Marijohn and Elle were concerned, was almost stream of consciousness. There’s a lot of miscommunication here, which is my least favorite trope to read about. But the central themes of loss, longing, and love really resonated with me.

Book Review: "Crushing" by Sophie Burrows

Thanks to Algonquin Young Readers for inviting me on the tour for Crushing. This is a beautiful, special book.

Have you ever been in the middle of a crowd and felt alone? Have you ever found yourself making eye contact with another person and hoping for a connection of some sort, only to feel too shy to actually initiate anything? This gorgeous graphic novel captures those feelings so accurately.

Told without dialogue, Crushing, which has as its subtitle “An illustrated misadventure in love and loneliness,” follows a young man and a young woman as they make their way through the mundanities of their lives. Both are alone and find themselves drifting through life. They catch glimpses of one another in crowds, see others having the time of their lives, and wonder what that would be like if it happened to them.

While it’s a little difficult to ascertain an actual story without dialogue, this is so beautifully done. Burrows really captures the way life feels colorless at times except for you, and how meeting a kindred spirit can light up the grey.

This was a beautifully unique read that I’ll treasure. It would make a lovely gift, too.