REVIEW: the love that split the world, by emily henry (SST)

I received this book for free from Sunday Street Team in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
Published by Razorbill on January 26th 2016
Pages: 400
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Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves.   Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start…until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.   That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.  Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

thank you to nori from readwritelove28 for hosting the sunday street team! i’m happy to be a stop on this ARC tour.

emily henry’s writing is (beau)tiful and i love it.

(did you see that pun? the one of the main character’s name is BEAU and this entire book is BEAUtiful. okay sorry for that bye.) this book is so deeeeeeep. do you ever read a book that’s so WOW that you need to stop every few sentences to let it all sink in? that’s how it was for me. the writing style is simultaneously light-hearted and profound. the writing/themes were definitely my favorite part of this novel.

if you asked me to describe the plot, i wouldn’t know where to begin. TLTSTW is very different. it’s a sci-fi, contemporary, romance hybrid thing that has TIME TRAVEL. (apparently time travel is thing for 2016 releases – not that i’m complaining though since i seem to eat it up) it’s a bit confusing in this sense that you don’t reeeaaally know where the plot is going, but that’s alright. it’s really about “finding yourself” more than anything else. and personally, i find the summary doesn’t do this book justice.

the only issue i had is the pacing. the beginning is slow, and the ending is rushed. it took me some time to get into it. this book doesn’t grab me by the soul and forces me onto a roller coaster; it was more like tying me onto a leash and me happily following. the ending had a lot of plot twists and shocking events, but it didn’t allow me to fully register what was going on before finishing. in that sense, it feels like the book is very unfinished and i’m missing a chapter (or two or three). everything else was great – it was just the begging/ending.


on a more positive note, the characters are fantastic. it would’ve been disappointing to read a character-driven book with mediocre characters, but these guys were fantastic. we follow an incredibly diverse cast that flowed together naturally and smoothly. considering how dynamic everyone was, i’m surprised. i specifically love how there weren’t pixie perfect girls or immediately swoooooon boys. the friendships and family connections also made me smile. i felt the romantic relationship was a biiiiiit insta-love-y, but i ultimately ended up loving them so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

overall, TLTSTW is a fantastic debut. it’s different, a little strange, but all-in-all lovely. the writing is beyond words; the characters made me want to squish everyone in a group hug; the themes made me contemplate life and think about this novel weeks after finishing. (yes, i’m writing this review weeks after.) (i had a gr draft of my initial thoughts so i didn’t forget everything.) i only wish the beginning and endings could’ve been improved just a tad bit more. other than that, this book is incredible! i cannot wait to read emily henry’s next novel.

i would recommend if you like…

• complex characters
• deep stories and possibly an existential crisis
• time travel

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about the author

Emily Henry is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrites.

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are you excited to read this novel? if you’ve already read it, what are your thoughts? let me know in the comments!!