Review: Nothing But Blue by Lisa Jahn-Clough
I'm a bit at a loss for Lisa Jahn-Clough's "Nothing But Blue" because the read was going so well for me right up until the incomplete, lackluster ending. One could probably say for a grief/coming to terms book, this was lacking a bit in terms of getting to the overarching point, but I genuinely did enjoy watching Blue's journey.
The story centers on a 17-year old girl who calls herself "Blue." She's wandering alone, homeless, suffering from selective memory loss. Her family's dead, but at first you're not exactly sure how they died and how Blue set off on her own. This is one of those novels where the journey is actually established better than the end point/resolution.
I liked the different people that Blue meets on her journey - because the character sketches themselves are really well done. I liked even when she comes across Shadow and starts traveling with the dog, and watching how she ends up surviving while trying to grapple with her terms of grief. The narrative toggles between the past and present - establishing what happened when she lived with her parents and even with her first crush. Blue seems like a typical teenager, I didn't always like her immaturity, but at least it gave me an eye into her experiences. I liked her more in the "Now" parts of the story than the past.
Ultimately, however, the end point of the book really killed my experience of this book, because I thought it would have more resolution than it did. I understood what finally happened by the end of the narrative, but the point the book ends on is majorly awkward where it would otherwise be symbolic. I think it was because it left too many threads untied and it just didn't work for me.
Overall, it's a decent read, worth the time taken for me, but I sadly found this lacking to where it could've been more for the respective aims it put across. Nice journey story, but the grief and establishment of the plot could've been much better.
Overall score: 2.5/5 stars
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher.
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