Hold Still by Nina LaCour

Wildcard ~ April

holdstill

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

My opinion in three sentences:

All in all, Hold Still is a profound and moving character exploration in an easy-read style, yet ultimately forgettable. LaCour had some real finesse in capturing the depth and complexity of the emotions expressed, and some fabulous little pieces of artwork scattered in as well. However, lots of the plot felt forced and unnecessary, and for all its ease of reading later on, the first few chapters were a bit of a struggle.

(Without spoiling anything) the best bit:

As messy and loose as the characterisation felt at times, LaCour captured the emotion of grief extremely well, navigating its nuances, applying apt sensitivity and not using one of those “fix-all”s that seem to be common in similar stories. Caitlin is feeling raw, upset and confused, and soon enough, the reader feels at least the first of those.

A warning for the book:

There’s a lot of stuffing in the book. That is to say, plot points that are just there to make the book longer, and characters that seem to have no real role other than padding out a few scenes. With such raw emotions abounding in the book, there was real potential, but it just felt as if it was diluted through these parts that, to me, had no meaningful role in portraying the story.

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