Book Review Eight: I Heart You, You Haunt Me

I Heart You, You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder, published by Simon Pulse.

I just spent an hour at the library completely captivated by this book. It was a quick read, mainly because it was written in verse format. Also, it's easy to follow. It's about a girl who loses a boy only to find that his love remains with her in new form. I won't ruin it for you, only that it's haunting her, as suggested in the title. I lost track of time with this novel. It gobbles you up and spits you out. Especially if you know the feeling of being overwhelmed by love. Or the feeling of loss.

I'm in love with someone who I constantly fear losing. Whether it be to someone else, himself, or to the after-life. I just know I wouldn't be able to cope, and immediately felt sympathetic for the main character, Ava. She was completely in love with Jackson. She was flooded with memories of their time together and longed to see him again, speak to him again, touch him one last time. Nothing anyone could say would make her feel better, and I can empathize. When you're going through a hard time you feel like being alone. You don't want to fake a smile and hang out with friends. You want to sleep to get away, or cry to drown out the pain.

This novel was stirring, yet hopeful. Poetic, yet simple. Schroeder doesn't bog the reader down with useless information or too many facts. She doesn't create more of a life than she needs to for her characters. You know the important things about the characters through Ava's eyes. You feel what Ava feels and that's it. You don't have to know if she has grandparents or what her favorite subject in school is. You just know that she's a girl and she's trapped by her grief. I like the simplicity in that mainly because it's ironic. Love isn't simple. It's complicated and it can consume you until you feel like there's nothing left of you.

The writing was good. It was direct, at times cheesy (such as line breaks that look like the words they wish to portray:

f

a

l

l

i

n

g)

However, other times it was just beautiful:

"I feel him

move closer to me.

The smell of him

fills me up.

It makes the hairs

on my arms

stand up straight." (pg. 62)

"I'm swimming

in the

warm sea

of his

kisses

once again." (pg. 97)

The content is well written, whereas the form is not. I guess this just reiterates that I don't like verse novels. I appreciate what they are trying to accomplish, I appreciate how quickly they are to read, however they are never as idiosyncratic, inventive, or creative as I would like them to be. However, I completely recommend this novel, it'll make you look at life and death in a new way, it'll make you feel better about love, and it will allow you to cross one more author from the Rochester Teen Lit Festival off your list.