The Love That Split The World Review

Distiller: Hikari Loftus
5/5 Stars




The Love That Split The World
by Emily Henry
Razorbill (January 26, 2016)
400 pages

I’m going to say right off the bat that the back blurb on this one doesn’t do it any justice. So if you're a lover of magical realism, I hope you'll give this one a try on my recommendation. This one is hard to describe without giving anything away.

...
Natalie Cleary is done with her town, Union. She’s done with her long-time boyfriend, Matt. She’s SO done with therapy and counseling. She just wants to get away to Brown University after graduation and figure out who she really is, rather than who she felt like she needed to be in High School.

But something is happening to Natalie. One second she’s in a crowded room, the next she’s standing alone in a buffalo field. Where the garden store usually stands, a preschool suddenly appears.

Natalie isn’t a stranger to seeing things though. Or rather, receiving mysterious visitations from an apparition she calls Grandmother. But this time, when Grandmother visits, she leaves Natalie with only a cryptic warning: “You have three months to save him.”

The next night Natalie meets, Beau. Together they embark on a journey to figure out who needs saving, what is happening to Natalie, and what it means to love.
….

There. That’s my best shot at describing this story without ruining anything. I admit that for me, the first half of this book was kind of confusing story wise and I kept feeling like ??? about some things. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of what was happening. All I knew is that the characters were great, Natalie and her best friend were hilarious, and I was intrigued enough by the mystery to keep pressing on. 

(I just loved the dialogue in this book. So much of it was clever and funny and I wouldn't mind being friends with Natalie.)

Anyway, around the second half of the book you start to get into the groove of how things work and the things that confused me initially became gripping and familiar. I found myself reading with the book literally inches from my face some times. Ha. When everything starts unfolding at the end, I was turning pages as fast as I could. There are parts in this book that are really cinematic. The imagery it conjures is pretty cool. 

I was really moved by Natalie and Beau’s relationship and situation. This one pulled at my heartstrings in a way that I haven't read in awhile. (the other book I want to compare this too might give things away so I won't say which one it is.)

There are some really complicated things in this book. Or maybe because I'm not good at the maths and sciences that the scientific parts were hard for me to wrap my head around. But in the end I couldn't help but think that Emily Henry was brilliant for being able to orchestrate this complicated situation and the explanation behind it. 

I just know that this is one I will read again and love better each time I read. It will take you until the end of the book to understand everything, but it worked for me and I ended up loving how it all unfolded.