Summary:
Magpie Lewis started writing in her yellow notebook the day her family self-destructed. That was the night Eryn, Magpie’s sister, skipped town and left her to fend for herself. That was the night of Brandon Phipp’s party.
Now, Magpie is called a slut whenever she walks down the hallways of her high school, her former best friend won’t speak to her, and she spends her lunch period with a group of misfits who’ve all been socially exiled like she has. And so, feeling trapped and forgotten, Magpie retreats to her notebook, dreaming up a place called Near.
Near is perfect–somewhere where her father never cheated, her mother never drank, and Magpie’s own life never derailed so suddenly. She imagines Near so completely, so fully, that she writes it into existence, right in her own backyard. It’s a place where she can have anything she wants…even revenge.
My thoughts:
YOU MUST NOT MISS is the newest book by one of my favorite authors, Katrina Leno, and of course there was no way I was gonna miss this one (will this pun ever get boring? LOL).
YOU MUST NOT MISS is definitely different to her other books. While they always deal with something sad or other, they are also always filled with happiness and hope, with people supporting each other, but YOU MUST NOT MISS is just filled with sadness and negativity, it’s hard to fall for it as quick and hard as her previous books.
That’s not a bad thing though and as someone who enjoys getting punched in the feel hard, repeatedly, this was right up my alley.
This is the story of a girl who takes her story into her own hands, claiming her happiness, doing everything that needs to be done to feel whole again, no matter who gets hurt in the process, no matter if they deserve what she deals out.
And I think that makes one of my favorite aspects of the book. The question of how much do these people who made her so unhappy actually deserve what she does to them. Whether they did or not, I was definitely cheering her on from the sidelines, being all supportive of the girl fighting back. We need more killer girls like Magpie.
It’s nothing new that Katrina Leno writes about tough topics but this book really throws a punch. It’s an entirely new perspective from someone missing or not accepting the support that’s needed.
YOU MUST NOT MISS has a diverse cast of the most amazing and supportive misfits, but this story isn’t about them. It’s all about Magpie fighting on her own.
Something else I loved was obviously the part where Magpie creates a whole new world for herself, a world where she gets to be happy. Who wouldn’t want something like that? I was both equally fascinated and sad about that aspect, because that’s some interesting way to cope with things but also imagine how damn unhappy you gotta be to conjure up something like that.
It’s not just that world that I loved though but especially a little surprise that comes with it.
My favorite thing of the whole book is definitely the ending. This is my favorite kind of ending and I LOVED where things ended.
And of course there is a fountain pen. I would have been surprised if there hadn’t been one. Definitely made me go “Ha! There it is” when I got to THAT part.
Maraia
May 8th, 2019Great review! I really liked the ending, too, even though I’m not always satisfied with open endings. In this case, it worked. I also really loved their group, and that’s the only thing I wish had been a little more present in the book. But like you said, the story isn’t about them.