Cover Story: Through Misty Morning Fog I See…
Drinking Buddy: All About That Bass
Testosterone Level: The Brooding, Silent Musician
Talky Talk: Just What Do You Have to Say for Yourself, Mr. God?
Bonus Factors: School for the Performing Arts
Bromance Status: Daughter’s Boyfriend Who I Secretly Like
Cover Story: Through Misty Morning Fog I See…
Mark’s sister died in a car wreck on the bridge. He goes there to brood. It still looks like there’s no cover art.
The Deal:
So one night Mark was driving home with his twin sister, Gracie. And as they cross a bridge, another driver allows himself to be distracted. Just for one second.
And now Mark has lost his sister. His twin. His other half. Still in high school, Mark is dealt such a crushing blow that he doesn’t see the point of anything.
If only he hadn’t taken the long way home that night…
But Gracie’s friend Hanna has come across his sister’s old journal, which contains her bucket list for the year. Nothing big: run a 5K, climb a mountain, take surfing lessons. Just some stuff she wanted to do before she graduated.
Now Hanna has convinced Mark that they must accomplish these things for Gracie. Maybe it’ll help give them some closure. Maybe.
How does one move on after something like that? Will happiness ever be possible for Mark?
Drinking Buddy: All About That Bass
So Mark, a Filipino-American, plays the bass guitar. He composes music. He speaks two languages. He adores his little half-sister. He’s going through hell, but still has time to be there for Hanna.
All his life he’s been half of an entity. Mark and Grace. Grace and Mark.
And the thing is…he’s still a half. Without a match. He’ll never be whole again.
His friends, his music, his father…what’s the point? What’s the point of any of this?
Mark wasn’t a phenomenal character, but he’s got more to worry about than impressing the reader.
Testosterone Level: The Brooding, Silent Musician
So Mark and Hanna have been buds since forever. They’re good pals. They joke about her insulin pump. She loved Gracie, she knows how he hurts. A true friendship.
Yep…friends. Nothing more. And what the hell is Hanna doing with Gracie’s old boyfriend? Huh? She could do a lot better than that douche! He doesn’t realize how special she is! What a wonderful girl she is! She deserves someone better! Someone like…
Oh.
Talky Talk: Just What Do You Have to Say for Yourself, Mr. God?
Every hear of Dr. Josef Mengele, the physician and medical experimenter at Auschwitz? Remember how karma caught up with him, and he had his arms ripped off and then was slowly eaten alive by fire ants? Wasn’t it wonderful how justice was served?
Oh, wait, that didn’t happen. He died in 1979, swimming in Brazil, never once having had to pay for those crimes.
Meanwhile, Mark loses Gracie to a freak accident. He can’t even go murder the other driver. It was just one of those things.
The good die young, while the evil live long and happy lives. Where the hell is the justice in that, Universe?
As Mark and Hanna try to give Gracie’s dreams the life that she no longer has, they learn to move on, just a little.
But they’ll never accept it. Not in a million years.
This book didn’t reach out and grab me, but it did make me think.
Bonus Factor: School For the Performing Arts
Mark goes to a school for the performing arts. A place where his bass guitar is not a hobby, but half the focus of his curriculum.
How cool is that? Seriously, how cool is that?
Bromance Status: Daughter’s Boyfriend Who I Secretly Like
Oh, that Mark boy again? What are those things in his earlobes anyway? And what’s up with that beanie he wears? Back in my day…Oh, hey. No, midnight’s fine. I trust you. Have fun.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received neither money nor booze for writing this review.
