I learned several important things after reading Between Here And Forever by Elizabeth Scott. Number 1) A coma and a persistent vegetative state are not the same thing. Number 2) I am the master at figuring out ‘secrets’ by the 20th page. Number 3) I want to read more Elizabeth Scott, but not for the reasons you might think.
In Between Here And Forever, Abby is pretty much the boring sister. Her sister Tess is mad hot, everyone wants to bone her, blah blah. Abby, however, spends all of her time whining about how great and awesome Tess is and how much Abby herself is a non-entity. Of course, Tess is in a coma, but still great and awesome. I’m not gonna lie, I would much rather hang out with Tess, comatose or not, because at least she’s not prattling on and on about how much she hates herself. Abby then gets the hairbrained idea that this random guy who shows up in the hospital, Eli, who goes to some prep school in the town, will make her sister wake up just by talking to her. Eli is incredibly good look according to Abby. Then, Abby is all weird and awkward turtle and I find myself pretty much cringing at every other word out of her mouth.
I don’t think I am supposed to feel this much disdain for a main character, unless it is on purpose. BUT REALLY. Is it necessary to spend around 150 pages talking about how perfect your sister is? Did she really honest to goodness think a random stranger would wake her sister up? I mean, goodness sakes if someone ever was like, ‘hey April, my brother is in a coma and you are so hot you can totally wake him up just by talking and then you will fall in love with him.’ I’d back away slowly with an exclamation of ‘um, ooooookay crazysauce, back to the ward with you.’ I get that desperate times call for desperate measures, but that doesn’t mean I have to like Abby for being so desperate. I bet if she spent half the time she does hating herself on a hobby, she’d probably be really good at the hobby and actually interesting.
Don’t get me completely wrong though, I didn’t hate Between Here And Forever. I liked the writing style. Scott is very straight forward in her writing and that is admirable. Plus, it’s uber fast to read. Also, Eli is such a nice kid, especially for putting up with Abby’s awkward, plus he’s three dimensional what with OCD and all.
I do want to read more Scott, because from what I hear, she’s a great writer and I think I’m just finding the wrong books by her. I thought Living Dead Girl was pretty good, and did an excellent job of capturing Alice’s fear and not victim-blaming. However, I didn’t love Low Red Moon and I don’t love Between Here And Forever. I guess, I’m up in the air and we’ll see what I think after trying some more of her books.
Disclosure: Received for review:
Other Reviews of Between Here And Forever by Elizabeth Scott:
LibraryKat’s World
WhatchYA Readin
Books by Elizabeth Scott:
Low Red Moon
Living Dead Girl
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I love how your reviews read in such a conversational tone, it’s like we’re sitting around having a glass of wine & you’re just telling me about a book you’re reading!
Miel et Lait recently posted..The sweet taste of victory
Oh, Miel, you have MADE MY DAY. Seriously, thank you so much. 🙂
It kind of sucks that the main character is annoying. Still, I’m going to try this one out because it might still be entertaining (crazysauce sometimes = fun).
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Lauren recently posted..Divergent by Veronica Roth
Well, that’s my hang up, but it’s not other people’s hang up, so maybe you will really love this book.
I love E. Scott but I mean… 150 pages into this and I just couldn’t take it anymore. Every sentence started off with “Tess this…” and it just annoyed me that she was all “oh gee why would Eli look at me/talk to me like that” GET A GRIP! And this is just 150 pages in. Goodness!
Marie recently posted..Happy Easter!
YES, exactly. I would DNF, but I liked the writing style and wanted to know if Tess would wake up.
I haven’t read any of her books about deathy things, cause I’m just, like…not into that. So I haven’t read this one yet, or Living Dead Girl. But…STEALING HEAVEN. I love it. I looove it.
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I will definitely try Stealing Heaven. I mean, I’m not completely giving up on her.
I would def suggested Stealing Heaven or The Unwritten Rule for books to read by Elizabeth Scott. Bloom is also really good. Living Dead Girl isn’t my favorite by her, but it is amazingly strongly written.
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I just started reading this one so I’m sorry to hear that it turned out to be just an okay book for you. I do agree that Living Dead Girl was fantastic. Too bad this one won’t live up to the only other Elizabeth Scott book I’ve read. Thanks for the review!
Cialina recently posted..Random Acts of Kindness- May
I was part of that Twitter convo!! W/ the whole, vegetative state/coma thing! 🙂
Great review April. I’m really interested to see what I think about this one. From what I’ve been hearing & my past experience with Scott (granted, it’s pretty limited) maybe her books about ‘issues’ just aren’t for me, & I’ll do better with the lighter reads- more the fluffy-feel good-romancy read. 😛
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