Review: Beautiful!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 25, 2014
I'm not sure I can express how much I enjoyed this book. I figured I'd like it, from reading the reviews, but, I really got sucked in.Crispin, at first, seems so young, but he's seen a lot in his years and had a rather unconventional upbringing. He's 25 and openly gay and talks up a storm. Seems pretty intelligent, too. As you get to know him a bit more, you realize that all the talking is a bit of a defense mechanism. Also, he is very compassionate, crazy observant and tough -- he can hold his own and stands up for himself without hesitation. But he's also insecure. He's impulsive and quick to anger and tends to react and speak before he thinks.Malloy, conversely, seems a lot older than his 32 years. He's pretty much always just kept to himself. It is a touch surprising that, as much time as he spends inside his own head, he doesn't know himself a bit better. But then humans have always been pretty good at denial. I do like that, once he discovers his attraction to Crispin, he actually spends time thinking about that and what it might mean. He doesn't shy away from it, at least with himself. But he doesn't exactly embrace his new revelation either. He may accept that that it is who he is, but it takes him time to really comes to terms with it and how this new knowledge will effect his views of his future."My past doesn't own me, I own myself."They both have wounds from their pasts that have never healed. Some things never go away. But, the hope is that eventually those events and the people that perpetrated them hold less power.It's beautiful watching them fall in love. Through tragedy and uncertainty, they still dare to dream of the future.