BOOK REVIEW: EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IS NOT RUINED BY DANIELLE YOUNGE-ULLMAN

love love love. so many emotions right now.

imma do this review Random Thoughts style: 
► If I had to sum up this book I would say it's all about Complicated Shit. I'm not kidding. The beauty of Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined is that you get to see Ingrid work through all her emotional and psychological turmoil throughout the book. You go to hell and back with her as she tries to untangle her mess of emotions, and when she finally does, you're just so damn happy for her. I just really love Complicated Shit books, man. They're emotionally taxing, but they're 100% worth it. (If you liked We Are the Ants, then you might like this too. They're not particularly similar content-wise, but they're both YA contemporaries about, as aforementioned, Complicated Shit, and the process of sorting through it.)

► Ingrid is a wonderful main character. She's caustic and self-aware and upfront and I love her for all those things.

► I loved how Younge-Ullman explored Ingrid's—here's that word again—complicated relationship with her mom, who, by the way, was a really fascinating character (both fiercely loving yet aloof, distant yet unhesitatingly vocal). Like Marchetta's Saving Francesca, this book deals with how a mother's mental illness—depression in particular—takes its toll on her, her daughter, and their relationship.

► THAT ENDING THO. I may or may not have cried.

► ok but the premise behind this book was VERY clever and well-executed. You go back and forth between Ingrid's time at this super intense camp and her past at home with her mom and at her school. And lemme tell you, these two plotlines complemented each other incredibly well: the former informs the latter and the latter informs the former. Together, they worked almost magically to breathe life into Ingrid's character and to explain why she made the decisions she made. Honestly, kudos to Younge-Ullman for pulling it all off, because she did.

Definitely one of the best contemporaries that I've recently read. Highly recommend you give this one a try.