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When We Collided by Emery Lord

Oh, how I loved it. I read this book in a few days and read the vast majority of it in one evening. It was a summer romance but it also made my heart ache.

This book tackles grief and mental illness and it does it beautifully. I've never lost a parent, but I did lose a grandparent six months ago and I related to Jonah in how hard it was to watch my mom grieve. I spent the week my grandmother was in the hospital with my mom and I promised not to leave and that if she wanted to stay all night I would to, but I had to leave her a few days after my grandmother passed away. My mom had to drop me back off at my dorm just a few hours after the funeral and I know it was hard for both of us.

Like Jonah, I have a hard time talking about grief and in the past, I've been someone who's tried to pretend everything is okay even when it's not. There have also been times where, like Vivi, I've thought I was doing better than I really was, though luckily the realization came more easily to me than it did to her. When my grandmother was dying, I didn't tell anyone but my roommate and my boyfriend. I didn't want to keep having to face it over and over again.

Jonah and Vivi both narrate the story and they split page time equally. Their stories are told through first person and their voices are distinct and of equal quality. The way they choose to describe similar events gives you insight into their similarities and differences without having to spell it all out from you. From the beginning, it's clear how much more fast-paced Vivi's narration is. If you're familiar with the symptoms of bipolar disorder, it starts to become clear before the narrative ever faces it head on. However, if you're not, the story incorporates it in a way that feels authentic and not overly-jarring. Vivi speeds up and up until she can't keep going.

As a psychology major and future therapist, I really appreciated the way this novel portrayed bipolar II. One of the biggest parts of this was the way that the novel is specific about Vivi's illness and shows Jonah reevaluating what he thought bipolar meant, which forces the reader to think about the same things. The narrative also never blames Vivi for her illness and the characters closest to her do their best to remind her this isn't her fault and to validate her experience. Bipolar disorder is often highly stigmatized and misunderstood so I really appreciated seeing a more accurate and more accepting portrayal of the disorder. This is especially important in young adult literature as the late teens and college years are the most common age of onset for bipolar disorder.

This book gave me the sweet moments I love and had incredible depth and heart.

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