Be Not Far from Me by Mindy McGinnis // Book Review

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In a small town where you can either leave or stay for the rest of your life, Ashley struggles to wrestle with some truths. At a forest party where, let’s be honest, everyone is here to drink and not much else. Ashley sees the same familiar crowd shooting the shit. It’s all so routine and comforting until she discovers a tryst in the middle of the night spurring her accident and getting lost in the woods. With a broken leg, Ashley has to figure a way out of this mess. It’s just so that her stubbornness and particular connection to the wilderness can help her fight.

As the days stretch on, food is scarce, and her foot rots Ashley is forced to ruminate about the past. Everything that has led up to who she is in this moment as she might not have another chance. We better understand that underneath her “tough girl” exterior is someone who’s been hurt and refuses to admit it. Why did her mother leave her? Where is Davy? Can she make it out of these woods alive?

I grew to like Ashley especially since she does come across as stand offish at the beginning. This is a great character study into a person who brings us complex emotions. As there aren’t other characters to distract us or play off of, we spend a lot of time in Ashley’s thoughts. Her inner mental journeys are interesting enough to weave a story about growing up where meth is the common drug choice and friends are the ones who end up with no matter if you’re not exactly alike. I recommend this for fans of McGinnis’s other books and also generally a good survival story.

This Darkness Mine by Mindy McGinnis // Book Review

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How else can we turn the “good girl falls for bad guy” trope on its head? Well, why not have Sasha Stone, resident good girl, be ruthless and cunning. While we’re at it, how about add a twin sister absorbed in the womb.

It’s easy to find Sasha unlikable. She’s deceitful, unempathetic, and narcissistic (or pragmatic, level headed, and confident if she were a guy). However, Sasha is motivated by a fierce loyalty to people she deems worthy. She’s protective of them. If you cross her, make any moves that threaten her position, or use her you’ll be met with retribution. She’s not always in the right but she’s not indecisive. In this way, I want to read any book that has her as a protagonist. How boring would it be to read another bland “forbidden love” story with a veneer of “no one’s as they seem”. I’ve already read that and it ends with the couple getting together, she may not be on speaking terms with her parents (or they may accept him), and they somehow go to the same college or live together. It’s really stupid wish fulfillment because no one cares who you date and if they do they have a weird investment in your social currency.

As far as this book goes, it completely subverted all of my expectations. I don’t like the idea that you are not in control of your body and someone else is making decisions for you. It’s disconcerting to see other people ascribe a nonconsensual connection to you. So you can imagine I was not on board with the whole, “Isaac Harver is telling Sasha she wants him despite her having no memory of what he’s saying happened.” From his perspective, it seems that Sasha doesn’t want to admit she’s having sex with a bad boy. The thing is, she still thought she was a virgin. I was not comfortable with this premise and I’m glad to say it went somewhere unpredictable and less rapey.

The plot is really out there. A little far fetched but I still want to make an appeal that you won’t read another book like this. It’s convoluted and entertaining. I was on the throes of confusion and enticed to continue. I recommend this for people who can handle the gore and are a bit vindictive themselves.