Title: The Opposite of Here
Genre: YA Contemporary/Mystery-ish
Author: Tara Altebrando
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication: June 5th 2018
The Opposite of Here by Tara Altebrando is a Young Adult Mystery/Thriller book with a lot of twists and turns and a pretty sad starting point. Natalie has to overcome some pretty heavy stuff at the beginning of the book and we get to see where life tries to take her as she finally starts healing.
Natalie is healing. Well, not so much healing, she is actually still grieving when the book starts. Her boyfriend, Paul, had recently died and she was very much still in mourning. Butttttt… Her family and friends were trying to get her to start moving on so they planned this big cruise for Natalie’s birthday and that kind of means Natalie has to go. I mean, hello, cruise for your birthday!
I thought this book was crazy. First, Natalie loses her boyfriend to an early death and then she goes through the craziness on the cruise? I was wondering how many mirrors this girl had to of broken to get this kind of luck. Did she make a hobby out of walking under ladders and running through a field of black cats? Shew, I am glad I am not her. And then, her one friend was kind of not the greatest friend. She had this group of three female friends and I just didn’t see that ending well, at all. And guess what, it kind of, sort of, didn’t end very well.
There was one part of the book that got on my nerves and it had nothing to do with the Mystery plot. It was with Natalie and how easily she forgave someone after a pretty big betrayal. There was this huge lead up to this horrible betrayal and Natalie just forgave the person like it wasn’t a big deal when it truly was. This situation helped Natalie realize some things about herself and made her come to terms with what she really wanted but that still doesn’t excuse what the person did to her or how easily Natalie forgave them. Just a little pet peeve of mine, I guess.
In the end, I enjoyed The Opposite of Here and I think the author did a fantastic job of bringing the mystery to life. I kind of figured if out a little early on but the book was still brilliant and I am glad I read it. There were a few parts that I definitely didn’t guess and that made the book a lot more enjoyable, too.
