And oh my God. Patrick can sing. I don't mean la - la la sing. I mean, sing sing. Goose - bumps, holding - our - breath, lumps - in - our - throat, tears - in - our - eyes, all - we need - is - love kind of sing. He belts it straight out, his voice like milk and honey, and everything rich and warm and good. I want to drink it. To take off my clothes and slip into his music like a hot bubble bath.
He didn't care. Being with him was about one thing. And I was fearless with him. Crazed. Alive. And a little bit Oh yeah? Say it. I fucking dare you.
Hardcover: 320 pages Publishers; Little, Brown Young Readers ( 20 Jan 2011) Genre: Young Adult - Contemporary Source: Bought Rating;
"I'm not in love with him. I'm in love with the way he erases things."
Patrick's hand continues to follow the lines of my face as I close my eyes, his fingers running through my hair and onto my shoulders and back again, brushing the soft edges of my ears, eyebrows, my cheeks. Soon, his touch is warm on my neck and collarbone, and when his fingers float across my lips, I open my eyes. He has to kiss me. He has to kiss me right now or I will die a thousand deaths in a thousand little firecracker explosions under the biggest weeping willow in all of Vermont.My Thoughts - Having read TWENTY BOY SUMMER I suppose I expected FIXING DELILAH to be just as good, if not better. Unfortunately it didn't quite meet my expectations. I dug in expecting to be overwhelmed with emotion, to completely adore the main character and to fall in love with this book, and when it became apparent that I was aware of every page I turned I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I expected it to be a fast read, to not be aware of how long it was taking me to read the book. But I wanted to love it so bad that it made me a little sad. I have a fondness for my grief books - I thought this would be one of those.
Do keep in mind though that the premise is great, and the book itself did have its moments.
Delilah is on the rebellious side. Her sneaking out at night and hanging with the wrong kind of boy is proof of that. They have a "no strings attached" kind of relationship, well, calling it a relationship would be pulling it a stretch. But Delilah is no naive girl and she likes what they have. Finn is an easy escape from the life back home. If anything, this book tackles rather well how the lack of communication between the parent and the child can affect both. Delilah's mother hardly knows her daughter anymore and is a full on workaholic; due to this she fails to notice her daughters extra curricular activities - not until it too late anyway and her grades have started to slip.
Upon the news that that her grandmother has passed away, Delilah and her mother must now return to the very place which they left eight years ago to never return. A place which holds secrets and a tragedy that her mother has been keeping from her for too long. There's an array of unfinished business at her mothers home-town and it seems as though Delilah is the only one out of the loop. But being there might just result in our protagonist uncovering more than she bargained for.
Her mother I was a little iffy about. I didn't like her to be honest. It wasn't so much what she did as fucked up as it was, no, but that she hid it for so long; gave her daughter a lie to live by. What she did was wrong and I don't think any excuse accounts for it because I think we all know that had they not gone back she would have never told her the truth, and knowing that makes me so angry. That you can take away so much from your child when they have every right to know. And do it out of selfishness in my opinion is just unacceptable, but then I would become annoyed with our MC for not trying harder. For backing down every time her mother froze. If she was truly desperate to know the truth as she made it out to be then she should have tried a lot harder instead of complaining. Harsh, I know, but true.
FIXING DELILAH had so much promise, but the slow pace of the book and the lack of attachment I felt for the characters kind of obliterated that. I found myself enjoying knowing more about the mystery sister, Patrick who was a complete sweetheart, and the actual Diary which had me very curious - I seem to have an affinity to all things sister + death = Diary related. And oh my, those quotes *sighs* There were so many of them that clicked with me, that I bookmarked time and time again. I wanted to stuff them in my pocket, lock them in a box for safe keeping. It's when I look back at those quotes - as you'll see through the ones I've picked for the review - that I wish I could have loved this book more. Yet it was all these things combined which gave this book that one extra star.
I didn't love it, but I did like it. It was a good enough read, but the fact that I knew it could have been a whole lot better brought it down a notch. I wanted to feel her grief, to connect with her but I just couldn't. However, I can still respect the fact that the family issues were done quite wonderfully and was perhaps one of the highlights about the book.
FIXING DELILAH is not a book that I would recommend you completely cross off your TBR pile because I have read some lovely gushing reviews on this book - in which case - some might find themselves enjoying it more than others.
"You! Can't! Fix! Me!"
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