Read: June 17-21, 2012
read in 5 days
pages: 224
Hope is a young woman who turns 30 just as her life is falling to shambles. This story is her road to recovery; the trials she faces as she tries time and time again to not only start living her life, but coming to terms with the fact that she deserves a great life. One that she has always wanted despite the mistakes she has made in the past. The novel chronicles her struggles as she overcomes a stifling depression. Her journey is heart breaking and honest. The novel reads more as a journal rather than as fiction. Hope's story is one that will hit home with anyone who has struggled to understand their own place in this crazy world we live in. Her story is one of hope, and I don't think it too ironic that she shares her name with the one emotion she lacks but comes to find over the course of the novel.
A Thirty-Something Girl is chock full of raw emotions that will grip the reader. There are so many times where the novel just slaps you with these emotions that you think WOW that is what that feels like. One of my favorite quotes about her depression is early in the novel:
"I slap that "everything's perfect" smile on my face and make my way down the busy street, and along the way if you listen carefully, you can hear it splash and hit the ground as I move - it's despair - and it pours from me, flooding any possibility of happiness. No one seems to notice it sloshing about, but I do. And it's all I can do not to drown in it."
A Thirty-Something Girl is chock full of raw emotions that will grip the reader. There are so many times where the novel just slaps you with these emotions that you think WOW that is what that feels like. One of my favorite quotes about her depression is early in the novel:
"I slap that "everything's perfect" smile on my face and make my way down the busy street, and along the way if you listen carefully, you can hear it splash and hit the ground as I move - it's despair - and it pours from me, flooding any possibility of happiness. No one seems to notice it sloshing about, but I do. And it's all I can do not to drown in it."
The novel is beautifully written. It takes you in and holds you to Hope - her fears are your fears, her triumphs are your triumphs. Her journey is one we all may travel at one point or another in our lives. I do admit I felt a bit lost in the beginning of the novel because the reader is thrown into Hope's troubles with little context, but before long you are right there with her.
I'll leave you with one last quote that I really loved in the novel:
"You should come to peace with your past and all the pain and happiness that filled it. Forgive those painful memories, but never forget them. We learn from emotions. All of them. Being hurt is tragic, but forgetting means we never felt. Never loved. And that would be true tragedy."
I'll leave you with one last quote that I really loved in the novel:
"You should come to peace with your past and all the pain and happiness that filled it. Forgive those painful memories, but never forget them. We learn from emotions. All of them. Being hurt is tragic, but forgetting means we never felt. Never loved. And that would be true tragedy."
I'm thankful to the author for sharing her novel with me and allowing me to review it. I'm glad I found her on goodreads.com! I hope others take time out of their busy reading schedules and read this fine debut novel. I look forward to reading more by L.M. Stull in the future.
You can find the e-book and novel in hard copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
You can find the e-book and novel in hard copy at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
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