Review: Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano

Dienstag, 4. September 2018

Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano
Expected Publication: November 1st 2018 by Elephant Rock Productions, Inc.
Number of Pages: 264 Pages (Paperback)
Series: No

  Love, mystery, and danger collide in this new literary thriller with the dark heart of a Gillian Flynn novel and the lyrical prose of Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You the Sun.
   An triumph of authenticity, grace, and nail-biting suspense, Lucia DiStefano's ingenious debut is an unflinching, genre-bending page-turner.
   As seventeen-year-old Linnea celebrates the first anniversary of her heart transplant, she can't escape the feeling that the wires have been crossed. After a series of unsettling dreams, inked messages mysteriously appear on her body, and she starts to wonder if this new heart belongs to her at all.
   In another Austin neighborhood, Maxine braces for a heartbreaking anniversary: her sister Harper's death. Between raising her brothers and parenting her grief-stricken mother, Max is unable to ignore her guilty crush on Harper's old flame or shake her lingering suspicion that her sister's drowning wasn't really an accident. With Harper as the sole connection, Linnea and Maxine are soon brought together in fantastic and terrifying ways as the shocking truth behind Harper's death comes to light. (goodreads.com)

* Thank you to Elephant Rock Books for providing me with an 
eARC in exchange for my honest review *

   Borrowed was nothing like what I expected it to be, and I mean that in the best way possible. This is a tale of grief, life, bodily autonomy, toxic masculinity, and survival told through the eyes of fascinating protagonists in a story filled with thrill and plot twists.

   The story starts out innocent enough with a feeling of coming-of-age and a look into the lives of two girls one year after one lost her sister and the other got a second chance thanks to a heart transplant. But, soon the story begins to twist and turn, accompanied by a writing style that will capture you and won't let you go until you're done. I had a couple of guesses along the way for what would happen next or who did it, but I never got it quite right and there were many things I didn't see coming, which I always appreciate.

   Linnea and Max were great protagonists and I loved getting to know them better, see Max trying her best to keep her family alive, take care of her younger brothers and her mother, and Linnea wishing to become a proper pastry chef and go to school for it. Both had distinct voices, making it easy to differentiate between their chapters even if you forgot which name was at beginning, and sounded their age.
   Ezra, Daniel, and Chris were also very different and played varyingly big roles in the story leaving me wishing we could've gotten to know some more than others. Some were the types of guys you'd want to date, or see your sister date, and others the very type you'd never want to come across even in your worst nightmares. But, that's the reality of things, men like the monster in this story exist and they are even more horrifying in reality than a story can make them seem.

   I've read Borrowed in less than two days and I've absolutely loved it. Lucia's writing style and way with words was captivating and enchanting, simple at times yet more than enough overall without giving you multi-paragraph descriptions or on the nose explanations, instead making you see what's between the lines and putting the pieces together right along with the characters. The story also taught me something I didn't know before about heart transplantation and cellular memory, which was both incredibly interesting and creepy. 
   I'm really happy I got to read this book early and spread the word about it because it's amazing and I recommend it to everyone, though there are a few trigger warnings that probably should get mentioned for violence, and especially violence against women (psychological as well as physical), so if you're sensitive to that, please be careful or come back to it at a different time.
I give Borrowed by Lucia DiStefano 5 out of 5 stars.

Pre-order

Check out the rest of the blog tour for Borrowed:
August 1: Cover reveal at YA Interrobang
September 4: Review at Alice Reeds
September 10: Author interview at Alice Reeds
September 24: Cover reveal at BubblersRead
October 15: Review at BubblersRead
October 21: Author interview at YA Outside the Lines
November 5: Author interview at BubblersRead
November 12: Author guest post at BubblersRead
And more to come!

1 Kommentar:

  1. You always write such thought reviews, Alice! Fun to see Lucia's book here.

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