From the back of the book: “When Hanna breaks up with her boyfriend of almost a year, she knows she’s supposed to feel . . . something. Liberated, maybe? Sad? Instead, there’s only one thing she feels for certain: She’s in for a pretty dull winter. Her job in the swimwear department certainly isn’t very exciting. But in an instant, everything changes. Hanna finds herself the bearer of a major secret: She was the last person to see two teenagers before they died in an accident on the icy lake, and she thinks she could have prevented their deaths. She can’t possibly tell her mother or her two best friends. She can’t tell anyone. Even drawing and painting — always her therapy in the past — aren’t the recipe for calm they once were. So when Hanna finds herself drawn to Will, the elusive boy she’s noticed around town, the kind of boy who’d quicken any girl’s pulse, she doesn’t hold back. Anything. What she learns about him will astonish her. But what she learns about herself — her friendships, her family, her life — will affect her far more.”
Review:
This book is terrific! In spite of the fact that very little happens during the book--it mainly focuses on Hanna's guilt over not warning the two teenagers who die, her and Will's relationship, and her friendship with Maura and Kelsey--I think Qualey did a fabulous job with what little bit of a plot she had to work with.
Qualey's developement of the main characters was stunning. Hanna is an artist, to the core, and Marsha Qualey beautifully wove that aspect of her through the plot. Hanna's character was easy to relate too, and Will was a really awesome guy--he definitely played a major roll in majority of the surprises throughout the book. I think that it was the characters themselves--and how well you grew to know them--that makes the book so good, so difficult to put down. The characters suck you in from the start, really. Its not so much the plot.
Just Like That wonderfully showed how its the smaller things--the things that, at the time, don't seem so big--end up changing your life the most . . . end up changing you. And i thought this to be a very important thing; most teenagers, and some adults, even, don't seem to realize how much all of the little things we do can effect us later on in life, how much the small mistakes, the small achievements, mold you as a person. And I think Qualey hits this dead on.
With great characters, quite a few plot twists, unbelievable shocks, and an awesome author, Just Like That is the a perfect short read, and a great book to get sucked into. Check it out!
