Play Book Tag discussion

I finished it in the hour before I needed to get up for work this morning, cozy in bed with my 12 year old wrapped around me. I had no idea what to think. I loved it, I was extremely bothered by it. I was deeply moved, I also found it quite surface level. I don't really care for YA, and yet I thought it captured the teenage mind and spirit really well, and right on the verge of everything, when everything is changing. Family dynamics are changing, kids are graduating and leaving for college. Are on the precipice between teen and adult.

There are some really beautiful lines in there. But the upshot is this. Love hurts. Its complicated and isn't always easy. But maybe just maybe it is worth fighting for. Something about that the beauty of love includes heartbreak, but it also includes the love. And that love is worth far more than the chance of loss. Its an entire world.

In this book, Evie has a lot to learn and process through and let go of. At its heart, its not even about her own love story. It's about her and her father, who I just fell in love with. A geeky professor who loves his daughters beyond measure. It reminds me of my own special father daughter relationship, and how precious, and sometimes fragile these are. Its about her and her new crush X, (Xavier). Its about the love between her and her friends, and at a time when everything is ending and beginning. Its about the people she meets when she is mystically led into a dance studio and competition that changes her life. Its about falling - into love, the dancing, into complete surrender of everything but your heartbeat, and the people you are dancing with. There was a beauty to it, and a simplicity. It was also hard, and moving, and beautiful, and bothersome. All of the feels, just like the teens say. It was a swirl of teenagehood. And I think as YA goes, very very good for the genre.

I thought this was so cute. I loved X's grandparents. I also liked Everything, Everything, which was very different from this one.