Rowena’s review of Nobody but Us by Kristin Hallbrook.
Main Character: Will, Zoe
Love Interest: Zoe, Will
Series: None
Author: Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads
Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.
They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.
Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger….
When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.
Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love…and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr.
When I saw this book on Edelweiss, I read the blurb and knew that I had to read it. I was pretty stoked to read it because you just know that there was going to be a good story and Hallbrook didn’t disappoint.
So this book follows Will and Zoe as they run away together to Vegas. Will just turned 18 and has been kicked out of the system since he’s an adult now. His girlfriend Zoe is 15 but she’s physically abused at home and Will wants to protect her from her abusive father so when it’s time for Will to leave, he asks Zoe to come with him and she does.
So many things happen in this book that it should have been hard to keep track of but that wasn’t the case at all. So many things are thrown in Will and Zoe’s way but their determination to take care of each other and to just get away from all of the bad things made for some really interesting reading. My heart broke more than once while reading this book and I really wished things would have turned out differently for both of them. They were dealt some pretty crazy life hands and I couldn’t help but want the best for the both of them. Being so young and having to deal with a father who beats you on a daily basis and then being shipped from one home to another home, not having anything permanent and seeing someone you care about being mistreated, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.
Will is angry. He’s angry at his Mom for giving him up. He’s angry at the system that keeps failing him and he’s angry that he keeps getting in trouble for trying to protect people who can’t fight for themselves. When he meets Zoe, he vows to protect her from her punk ass father who keeps hitting her and once he turns 18, his plan is to skip town and move to Vegas. He wants to take Zoe with him so that they can start a new life together. A life where they can both chase whatever makes the both of them happy and once they take off on their own, bad things happen at every turn and it was inevitable that things would catch up to them.
Zoe was the character that I wanted to hold close and protect from the world. She was so young to be so scared of what was to come and the way that she tried to not be scared of Will had my heart in knots.
Hallbrook wrote an engaging story about two young people trying to start a better life for each other. She took two characters and brought them to life through the pages of this book and I couldn’t put it down. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worst for Will and Zoe, Hallbrook shows just how wrong you are. I really enjoyed getting to know both Will and Zoe and though the ending made sense, it still made me sad. This book was a good one. A solid read that I couldn’t read fast enough. Kudos to Hallbrook on writing such a good story. I’ll definitely be reading more by this author.
…and that’s your scoop!
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Book cover and blurb credit: http://goodreads.com
