This year I was determined to really stretch my reading into unfamiliar genres. It’s been interesting. Let Me Be Like Water by S.K. Perry is an exploration of grief and relationships. I thank TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy at no charge for my honest review.
About Let me Be Like Water:
A beautifully poignant and poetic debut about love, loss, friendship, and ultimately, starting over.
Twenty-something Holly has moved to Brighton to escape. But now that she’s here, sitting on a bench, listening to the sea sway, how is she supposed to fill the void her boyfriend left when he died?
She had thought she’d want to be on her own, but when she meets Frank, a retired magician who has experienced his own loss, the tide begins to shift. A moving and powerful debut, Let Me Be Like Water is a book about the extraordinariness hiding in everyday life; of lost and new connections; of loneliness and friendship.
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About the Author:
S. K. Perry was longlisted for London’s Young Poet Laureate in 2013 and is the author of the poetry collection Curious Hands: 24 Hours in Soho. She lives in London and Let Me Be Like Water is her first novel.
Connect with S. K. Perry
My Opinion:
This book explores the deep grief of a young woman who lost her boyfriend of five years. Bits and pieces of their life together and about their relationship are shared as she moves forward in life – albeit somewhat reluctantly. She has moved out of London to get away from the memories and to Brighton where she spends her days staring at the sea. It is there she is befriended by an older gentleman who starts her re-entry into the land of the living.
Her new friend is a magician and he manages to produce the perfect bit of fantasia just when needed the most. I was never quite sure if he was a bit of magical realism or not – sometimes when I wander outside of my normal reading I find the books a bit over my head. That was the case here. Nonetheless this man becomes our young lady’s new center. He invites her to join the local book club which introduces her to a group of people he has brought together. They all were “found” just like she and all were just a little bit lost.
I am not completely sure how I feel about this book. I can’t say I identified with the young woman. She behaved in ways that I found decidedly stupid. I am of a wildly different generation and I know that this often affects how I react to novels. I try to balance that reaction with how the writing, plot, etc. come together.
This book was written in exceptionally short chapters if they could even be called chapters. Each series of paragraphs moves around in time slowly giving peaks into the life of our young lady before and after the death of her great love. She is also trying to understand some basics about their relationship as she mourns his loss. The overwhelming feeling as you read the book is a heavy sadness that really never lifts. This makes it hard to say, “oh wow I really enjoyed this book.” There are limited moments where the sadness breaks and light enters and it’s like you can breathe again.
Was I happy I read it? I’m not sure. I am honestly not sure.
Questions? Comments? Leave them HERE
Rating:
3.5
The Giveaway:
One lucky US reader will win a copy of Let Me Be Like Water. Just enter as many ways as you would like on the Gleam widget below. Full rules are on the widget. Good luck everyone.
