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Book Author(s): Cath Crowley

Words in Deep Blue

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Rachel has been gone from her hometown for three years. She and Henry were best friends for 10 years before she and her mom and brother, Cal, left to go live in a coastal town with her grandmother. Before she moved, Rachel left a letter for Henry in his family’s bookshop’s “Letter Library” declaring her love for him. And in the intervening three years, Henry never acknowledged it. Also in those intervening years, Cal died — drowned in the ocean right next to their home. And Rachel is grieving. She’s angry. She’s lost. She’s not herself.

Now she’s going back to her hometown, staying with her aunt. She’d rather not get out and do anything, but her aunt is firmly encouraging her to get out and do things. See old friends. She really doesn’t want to see Henry. But of course she does. And she even ends up working in the bookshop with him, cataloging all the information that’s been left in the Letter Library. (This is such a cool concept: the shop keeps a few shelves of books that aren’t sold or taken out of the store. People can write in them and leave letters or notes to other people in them. It’s a whole communications hub and interactive reading experience held within books.)

Rachel and Henry become friends again, though she never addresses the big issue of the letter she left. And she keeps the information that her brother died a secret from everyone, so they don’t know why she’s so different. Oh, yeah, and Henry has just been dumped (again) by the girl he’s practically worshipped since Rachel still lived there. So if the two best friends are going to really be best friends again, and on top of that, possibly get together romantically, they have some big obstacles to get past.

Words in Deep Blue isn’t just a cute YA romance. It’s about family, friendships, grief and loss, making hard choices. I was expecting something a little lighter, but I appreciated this story. The characters’ takes on grief and still living after a huge loss rang so true. The repartee between characters was entertaining and real. And I loved the bookshop (Henry tells Rachel it’s not a “store”; it’s more than that — a “shop”). It is just the kind of place book lovers would love to have exist in real life. Then there’s all the talk about books, about what they mean, about which ones the characters love the most and for what reasons. It’s just a delight. My only real problem with the book is the frequency of strong language: there’s just a lot. Oh well.

Rated: High, for probably at least three or four dozen uses of strong language, and as many uses of the s-word. Sexual content is limited to some making out and a few crude references and the understanding that older teen characters are having sex, without any real scenes or details.

Click here to purchase your copy of Words in Deep Blue on Amazon.

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