Evan has a secret. He loved Ariel even though she was with Jack. Now Ariel is gone and all Jack and Evan have is each other and their memories. But someone else has a secret. Pictures start coming to Evan, pictures no one should have been able to take. Pictures that unearth memories Evan wants to stay buried. Reality, memory, lies, and truth are all part of the same picture.
This books is unabashedly Emo truly original. We get to see all the photos Evan is sent and that adds a lot of impact to this book. The photographs were sent to the author and he wrote his chapters as they came in, so Evan’s confusion and slow realization feels real. The narrator’s use of strikethrough to illustrate his fractured occasionally whiny thoughts really works to get you inside his head and see how his world is slowly unraveling. This is a very quick read with diary style entries that are brief and many pages that have a single photo or just a few lines of text. This makes this an easy nook to fly through to solve the mystery. The books strange design and narration style are its greatest strength and weakness. This really feels like a love it or hate it title, which I always love. It’s quirky, original, and a great look at a single point of view. It really tackles some big ideas about how we are all stuck inside our own versions of how we see reality and how that can affect us. I recommend it to anyone that wants something that will challenge them and make them think.
