genre: adult fiction (but with older young adult appeal)
Lenni is in the terminal ward at a Glasgow hospital and you can be sure she wouldn't want you to mince words about it. Lenni is the kind of teenager that asks the uncomfortable questions, states the uncomfortable truth, has a really hard time pleasantly following the rules and, surprisingly, has a way of worming herself right into your heart. How Lenni meets the elderly Margot and how their combined one hundred years of life are woven into this narrative makes for a story about truly seeing the wonder in each day we're given - and cutting ourselves slack for the tricky parts of the past.
I wouldn't have chosen it, probably, because it doesn't seem to have much plot there, from what I just told you, right? But thank heavens for book clubs because this book grabbed me by the heart and wouldn't let go. The plot, such as it is, is like a long walk with an old or new friend, you aren't sure where you are heading but that isn't the point anyway. I loved the back and forth in time in each of their stories - I thought the pacing and switching narratives worked so well. I loved the secondary characters and how things came together at the end. I did, yes, have dripping tears, but the good kind. The kind where you've invested in a story and it's told well enough that the tears are cathartic. I did think there were a FEW too many coincidences, so it gets 4.5 stars instead of a straight five but I'm rounding up because of how it made me feel when I was finished.
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