Review: Suffering an Identity Crisis
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 9, 2013
Told in alternating points of view, this follows the lives of Jacob and Marissa. It has the typical small town feel where everyone knows everyone else's business. It's interesting to see just how much their lives are linked and what happens when things go awry in each of their lives. Overall I did enjoy it, there were just a few things that bothered me while reading it.Marissa wasn't a very strong character. She lets many people dictate her life and doesn't really stand up for herself. There are times where she's described one way but then acts a different-somewhat contradictory. By the end she does stand up for herself which is a refreshing change. I wish we had seen more of this side of her from the beginning.Jacob is a strong person. He falls in love with Marissa at a young age although it's not really explained why. It doesn't seem like they spend a whole lot of time with each other so is it just love because of the mystery? I'm not sure. Either way, he is able to stand by his family's side, but also stand by Marissa's whenever they need it. at the age of 18 he finally realizes what he wants to do with his life. That's pretty awesome considering most 18 year olds have no clue. I think I liked Jacob better than Marissa.The main thing that bothered me is that this story is suffering from an identity crisis. There are some major religious undertones in this-not a bad thing- but at the same time, there are some somewhat visual sexually explicit scenes. To me, if it is Christian fiction, as this seems to be 95% of the time, then it's normally less graphic and more fade-to-black. It's pretty insignificant to most people I'm sure, but it bothered me. I went into this expecting one thing, a new adult romance, and ended up with something completely different, a religious story with an identity crisis. That said, I did enjoy it and I flew through it. I kind of knew what was going to happen, but it was nice going on the journey with the characters nonetheless.