Review: The Art of Losing by Lizzy Mason
SYNOPSIS:
On one terrible night, 17-year-old Harley Langston’s life changes forever. At a party she discovers her younger sister, Audrey, hooking up with her boyfriend, Mike—and she abandons them both in a rage. When Mike drunkenly attempts to drive Audrey home, he crashes and Audrey ends up in a coma. Now Harley is left with guilt, grief, pain and the undeniable truth that her ex-boyfriend (who is relatively unscathed) has a drinking problem. So it’s a surprise that she finds herself reconnecting with Raf, a neighbor and childhood friend who’s recently out of rehab and still wrestling with his own demons. At first Harley doesn’t want to get too close to him. But as Audrey awakens and slowly recovers, Raf starts to show Harley a path forward that she never would have believed possible—one guided by honesty, forgiveness, and redemption.
REVIEW:
*Book Received in Exchange for Honest Opinion/Review*
In an effort to stay authentic, I am going to be 100% honest and say this book disappointed me. Maybe because I have known Lizzy through the book community for several years and had too high expectations, maybe because the hype-beast was real, or maybe it didn’t live up to my standards, but as one of my most anticipated reads of 2019, I was let down. It was a horrible read, but as I closed the pages, I felt very meh about it all.
So first let me dive into the characters and what I liked and didn’t like. I really struggled to connect with Harley, she existed and she was there but I had no emotional attachment to her, I couldn’t relate to her struggles and grievances. She was extremely fickle, wishy-washy, and insecure. I was frustrated by her constant mood swings, one minute she would be enforcing a friends-only policy and the next she is making-out and I was over it. Rah is delightfully complex and transparent, I think he was by far my favorite character for his constant honesty. He was self-assured and up-front about his strengths and weaknesses. Mike was a garbage person, but I think Lizzy intended for him to be.
But the real issue I have her is Audrey. Audrey is a bratty child who literally gets away with everything. I was fuming by how quickly Harley forgave Audrey for everything but sent Mike the guillotine every time he spoke. Audrey has no redeeming qualities and as the “baby” in the family it seems she can do no wrong. I just didn’t like her or the relationship between her and Harley. It made me grateful I didn’t have a sister.
In terms of the plot, it was slow to start. I wasn’t invested into the story till around 62%. The first 62% felt like a struggle for a balance between the blooming romance between Raf and Harley and the fact that Audrey was in the hospital. At 90%, there was a tender moment where I finally sighed in happy content. But…it should have taken me that long to find a moment in the story. Based on all this, I would give the story a 3 out of 5 stars.
LINKS:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
