This is the book that has made me cry the most this year. In fact, the crying started early and really didn’t stop until the end. Ever Since is a devastatingly delicate book on finding the courage to speak up in the face of abuse. Virginia is a girl who is so often judged by her peers, and sometimes even her own friends, that she leans into THEIR ideas of who she is. This comes straight from her own trauma which essentially wiped out her self-worth and her own sense of identity. While the character is meant to be unlikable for her actions and behaviors, I truly love her. Bruzas did a masterful job creating a character whose intentions can’t always match her actions, and she did this without explicitly having to say: trauma might make you like this. While I do not share the main character’s history, as a reader, I understood the way one mistake can make you feel like you might as well lean into bad choices—especially when it seems like the world won’t forgive you anyway. This book has been living in my head for weeks after finishing. I highly recommend it!

Posted by robiiehood at 2023-05-04 20:30:06 UTC