Bridget Duke is the uncontested ruler of her school. The meanest girl with the biggest secret insecurities. And when new girl Anna Judge arrives, things start to fall apart for Bridget: friends don’t worship as attentively, teachers don’t fall for her wide-eyed “who me?” look, expulsion looms ahead and the one boy she’s always loved—Liam Ward—can barely even look at her anymore.
When a desperate Bridget drives too fast and crashes her car, she ends up in limbo, facing everyone she’s wronged and walking a few uncomfortable miles in their shoes. Now she has only one chance to make a last impression. Though she might end up dead, she has one last shot at redemption and the chance to right the wrongs she’s inflicted on the people who mean the most to her.
And Bridget’s about to learn that, sometimes, saying you’re sorry just isn’t enough.
At the beginning, I didn't think I'd like this book, because it just seemed to be about a whiny self-centered girl who needed a bit of sense put into her. But now I can see that it was so much more than that. I think the point of this book was to alert people to how little, seemingly-insignificant comments can actually mean a lot to someone else - whether it is good or bad. And to be honest, especially towards the end, I loved it. Even though Bridget is horrible at the beginning, at the end I actually liked her, and throughout the story (especially after the Boardroom), I could see how she'd changed. It wasn't just a click-of-a-finger thing - as she was put in the shoes (literally) of the five different characters, you could see it slowly dawn on her, and I think that was incredibly realistic, which made me relate to her better. On the back of my copy, it says "If you couldn't get enough of Before I Fall [by Lauren Oliver] you'll devour Here Lies Bridget's snarky, snappy wit" - even though I agree with this, and definitely recommend for you to read both of them, I'd suggest reading HLB before BIF, simply because the latter is literally life-changing, and hard to live up to, and even though I did thoroughly enjoy this book, I think Harbison could have improved on her supposed wit and perhaps could have extended the novel and made it a bit longer, including more events and relationships. But neverless, great book which did leave me in tears.
Rating:4/5
Great review! I'm getting better about being patient with characters who are irritating at the beginning of novels. It's a great opportunity for character development.
ReplyDeleteThank you(: Same, but there's still room for improvement; sometimes irritating characters really spoil books for me:/ Luckily, this wasn't the case ^^
ReplyDeleteI really liked this book! Glad you enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was good ^^
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