Review: Some of the Parts by Hannah Barnaby
SYNOPSIS:
Sometimes bad things happen, and we are not the same when they are over.
For months, Tallie McGovern has been coping with the death of her older brother the only way she knows how: by smiling bravely and pretending that she’s okay. She’s managed to fool her friends, her parents, and her teachers so far, yet she can’t even say his name out loud: “N—” is as far as she can go. But when Tallie comes across a letter in the mail, it only takes two words to crack the careful façade she’s built around herself:
ORGAN DONOR.
Two words that had apparently been checked off on her brother’s driver’s license; two words that her parents knew about—and never confided to her. All at once, everything Tallie thought she understood about her brother’s death feels like a lie. And although a part of her knows he’s gone forever, another part of her wonders if finding the letter might be a sign. That if she can just track down the people on the other end of those two words, it might somehow bring him back.
Hannah Barnaby’s deeply moving novel asks questions there are no easy answers to as it follows a family struggling to pick up the pieces, and a girl determined to find the brother she wasn’t ready to let go of.
REVIEW:
This book suffers from the classic tale of great concept and terrible execution. Honestly, the plot line felt so disconnected, with multiple separate story lines, where everything is dragging out and then quickly rushed to wrap up. What you read in the synopsis is not what is reflected in the book, it was like two different people wrote the synopsis and actual novel.
I am going to start off with that Tallie is a disaster, never in the book is she described as “smiling bravely and pretending she is okay.” In fact, she spends the majority of the book avoiding any conversation that would mention her brother (outside of her head), stealing his personal items and mail, hiding numerous things from her parents, and skipping class because even 4 months after her brother’s passing no teacher would dare scold her. There was no character development, in fact this was more like character disintegration. She went from semi-function to literally losing her mind and then several pages later everything is perfectly fine.
Now as I mentioned there are numerous mini-plots in this book. First off, starting with the breakdown of Tallie’s friendship with Amy. This is completely unnecessary to the story, Amy was a horrid character (based on her interactions) and then suddenly Tallie is over the obsession of fixing the friendship and washes her hands of the situation. Her friend at the moment, Mel…I don’t even know how to deal with this absurdity. I won’t ruin the “twist” but there was no build up on inclination to it and honestly I felt like Hannah was like well this is already going downhill so why not add this in? No…just no.
For the love of God authors, know when your story is enough. The first 225 pages were a messed up, pity party and then bam! The next 75 pages wraps up every delusional plot line and sends me on my way. Some key points of the story, like her parents discussing moving or therapy or healing…they are just completely forgot about. No mention of it after her breakdown. I am just confused and disappointed with what I just read.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
