Book Synopsis:
At seventeen Sky Davis doesn’t attend public school, there isn’t a tv in her home and she doesn’t own a cellphone. This is her normal.
Sky meets Dean Holder, a boy who holds secrets about her troubled past. Once the truth unravels, Sky’s isolated lifestyle makes sense and her trust in everyone is shattered.
Can Sky recover from her past troubles? Or will all the lies she uncovers be too overwhelming?
My Review:
I always try to write spoiler free reviews, sorry in advanced if some things sound vague. It’s hard to talk about something without actually talking about it.
There is so much to say about this particular CoHo book it needs to be divided into sections:
Narrative style: #BlissfulSigh. As per typical CoHo, the narrative style is not traditional. Each chapter opens with the date and time of day. The first page throws you into the story. Once you start reading it feels like your copy of the book misses a couple of pages (in a good way) and you need to quickly catch up with what is happening. The second chapter opens with “2 months earlier”, and the reader is taken through how Sky reaches the point she is at in the first chapter. It sounds complex but it’s not. Each chapter has the time and date so you can track everything.
“I need one of those chapter breaks. I just want to catch my breath, but I have no idea how.”
Plot: Whew. Twist after twist. Because of the highly dramatic opening of the book I made assumptions. And wow was I off. What I assumed and what was actually happening were such opposites I kicked myself for making the assumptions I made.
At some point in most books the characters become predictable. Based on past decisions you can almost predict what is going to happen. Not with Hopeless. Each time I thought I knew what to expect, the unexpected happened.
“I don’t need anyone’s comfort. I need to learn how to rely on myself to stay strong because I’m the only one I can trust”.
Storyline: CoHo tackles major issues. Without giving anything away, Hopeless focuses on the trauma of abuse. And how teenagers try to find affection in meaningless hook-ups. Like in Ugly Love, the rationalization behind so many actions are so twisted, they actually make sense. CoHo also pays great attention to detail. The story loops in and out of itself throughout the book. Actions, events and words that are seemingly irrelevant fall into place as you read the book. Just when you forgot about something it pops up like “hey remember me? Turns out I’m important”.
“what’s with the shoulder shrug, you have a nervous tick?”
The ending: Because of the storyline, I thought the ending would be clean and neat. But it’s not. There is hope but it’s still uncertain, with the definite tone of “things are not perfect, but we’ll work on it”. I liked that. It made the story that much real for me, compared to having it be a happily-ever-after type ending.
“It’s real. You can’t get mad at a real ending. Some of them are ugly. It’s the fake happily-ever-afters that should piss you off”
Out of all the CoHo novels I’ve read, Hopeless is my favourite. and also my most defaced book I own, the amount of highlighting and margin notes are crazy.
Love your review. And I’m also a CoHo fan. That woman, gives you value for your money. Where did you get Hopeless? I’ve tried all the Exclusive books in Cape Town. And they don’t have any. I’m thinking of ordering Hopeless and Losing Hope.
Thanks! She does, CoHo’s books never disappoint.
I order most of my books from Reader’s Warehouse, it takes a while depending on where they are shipping it from. But if a branch in SA has stock, you receive it within the week. I mostly shop in Kloof, and I know that they currently have stock of Hopeless, if you’d like to try them. Let me know if you order them 🙂
I’d really like that.