About A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend
For months, Cass has heard her best friend, Julia, whisper about a secret project. When Julia dies in a car accident, her drama friends decide to bring the project—a musical called Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad—to fruition. But Cass isn’t a drama person. She can’t take a summer of painting sets, and she won’t spend long hours with Heather, the girl who made her miserable all through middle school and has somehow landed the leading role. So Cass takes off. In alternating chapters, she spends the first part of summer on a cross-country bike trip and the rest swallowing her pride, making props, and—of all things—falling for Heather.
This is a story of the breadth of love. Of the depth of friendship. And of the most hilarious musical one quiet suburb has ever seen.
My Review
I was really excited to read this book as it was my first by the author. I thought that the title was extremely unique and thought the story sounded like it had a lot of potential. To be honest this book was just ok for me. There were parts of the book that I really enjoyed and some parts that I felt were totally unbelievable. Let me elaborate.
Cass and Julia are best friends and have been for what seems like forever. They share everything together even though they are extremely different. Cass is a math whiz and Julia is into the theater but somehow they make it all work. Even after Julia starts dating, she still makes time for Cass and Cass is just happy to see her friend so happy. But, then tragedy strikes. Julia is killed in a car accident leaving Oliver’s house (her boyfriend) and the whole dynamic of the group of friends changes. Was Julia the only thing that Cass had in common with the rest of the theater people? Will Julia’s super secret project “Totally Sweet Ninja Death Squad”, a musical that she had been working on before she died, become a reality? And how can Cass get past the fact that not only has she lost her best friend but the star of the play is Heather, a true enemy of hers from the past?
The overall tone of this book was one that I did enjoy. I loved how the author alternated the chapters between THEN and NOW so you could see how things progressed for Cass throughout. The emotion that is felt by Cass was mostly believable as well. But, the interaction between Cass and the rest of the theater people seemed a little overdone. Either they were really friends or they weren’t and sometimes I just wasn’t sure. And what parent in their right mind would allow their 16 year old to bike thousands of miles with the ashes of their dead best friend just to fulfill a trip that they had planned? That was totally unbelievable! She was sleeping in a tent on the side of the road with only a credit card for emergencies, some money she had saved up, and a cell phone. And, she didn’t even talk to her parents on a daily basis. This just didn’t seem like anything that would ever happen, or if it would it is the type of parent that should be reported to Social Services.
Overall I would recommend this book because I do feel that the writing was strong. I just think that parts of it could have been improved upon.
Thanks to Around the World ARC Tours for allowing me to be part of this book tour!
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