Review: The potential is there, you just need to find it
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2014
What truly pulled in my attention from start, with humorous remarks and realistic issues, turned somewhat flat as the story progressed. I think I stopped believing the story the second Oliver blurted out he wanted to kill himself and was immediately whisked off to a mental facility by his father. It just seemed too abrupt, and it made me stop and consider that if this was real life, would my parent simply tell me to get up and let's go to the madhouse, or would they actually try to have a conversation with me about? It was like this for me the more I read the story. Sure Oliver's mother was quite a piece of work and his father was too reserved with her and should speak out more, but I would've liked for them, or even him, to ask Oliver why he wanted to kill himself.Now on to the hospital. The dynamics of this place was a little hard to convince me, especially when the characters are introduced. Lacey sounded like a tough girl with trust issues at first, but then suddenly she comes in contact with Oliver and starts telling him everything. Wouldn't she be mindful of the fact that this is a complete stranger, regardless if she's attracted to him? Hmm...my feelings about her and even the main character are rather mixed.Oliver lost me when his father admitted him. I know he's not entirely depressed or shares some of the extreme psychological issues as the others inside the place, but how is he so open to revealing everything about himself the second a doctor asks him to in group sessions or one on one? And then some of the thing he'd say were just too immature for his age, and often times those narration threw me off. Sure he's funny, but not always. Some things were uncalled for.I'm in no way saying A Million Little Snowflakes was bad. It was an okay read with a few things (as mentioned above) that bugged me. Aside from those things lies a realistic story with great potential had I felt more connected to the characters and possibly if the period had been longer. I do like that the main character found his voice to speak up and express his feelings to his mother, the dictator, and I also like that in such an awkward situation he found love for the first time. Sadly, his rash judgment at the end resulted in quite a disaster for himself. I do like that the story is based on real events and that does make up a bit for the issues I've mentioned before that threw me off. Still, I feel it could haven been much better.