What I Didn't Say by Keary Taylor
What I Didn’t Say by Keary Taylor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was absolutely wonderful! Amazing!
It seems that most of the books I’ve read lately are set in small towns, and I’m totally into that. I’ve always liked the idea of living in a small town, especially after reading this story.
Jake Hayes made a huge mistake in his senior year of school. He had big plans of joining the Air Force when he graduated but because of that mistake he would never be able to. The Air Force wasn’t the only thing he lost with that mistake… he lost the ability to speak.
“Some days I miss flying so much it makes my entire chest hurt, feels like I can’t breathe sometimes. I try not to think about the fact that I’ll never have thousands of feet of air between me and the ground again. But it’s those times that I have to remind myself that at least I got the chance to do it sometime in my life. A couple dozen solo flights are better than having never done it at all.”
Now, when something so tragic happens to us we have two choices… let it consume us or overcome it. It took him a while but he overcame it. We also have to remember that there is always someone out there that is worse off than you. Don’t pity yourself! Handle it, deal with it, because it could be worse.
It took Jake a while to realize that, but he did eventually.
“I wanted to scream as I stood there, my toes hanging over the edge of the dock. I wanted to let a gut-wrenching howl rip from my disfigured throat toward those clouded skies. I wanted to say every swear word my mother had ever taught me not to say.
I would have settled for a cut-off whimper, just as long as some kind of sound came from my lips.”
Another thing I thought was cool, he had the support of the whole town -that small town. And when the girl of his dreams goes through her equally rough time, the town was there for her too. Samantha learned about love and family, because she only ever had her mom.
“I wrote: ‘Do you really not believe in love?’
I really wished I never would have asked.
‘No’, she had written back. ‘I believe people become infatuated; maybe they even really like each other. But I don’t believe in love. Those kinds of feelings just don’t last. You feel them for a while, maybe even a few years, but eventually the feeling goes away.”
When I started reading I kept thinking of the summary and thought the book was going to be predictable. Boy was I surprised! It was so much more! It wasn’t just a boy meets girl, boy loves girl, and major tragedy kills his chance of telling her. No… there’s more… yes, all of that was in it, but girl also had a story and the way they dealt with everything was just so unpredictable that it kept me on the edge of my seat and completely blindsided.
I just loved this book and the feelings it left me with. It was a great book about falling, rising, and learning to love. The story was so much more than a typical YA romance/love story. It was the type of book that should be used as a lesson for kids in high school instead of those scared straight videos they used to show us. I was just plain amazing!
~NOTE:
Copy of this book is provided by publisher via NetGalley.
Thank you.
I’m not paid for writing a review -I do it because when I read a book I just love, I feel the need to share it.
I really liked this story, too. 🙂 A definite re-read for me.
😀