I am a 21 years old girl yet I still love to read young adult novels. I don’t know if 21 can still be called young adult. I feel like I am a little old for that. Anyway recently I read When We Collided by Emery Larson. I picked up this book (no book actually I read it in pdf) because it was about depression. I always read young adult novels about depression and grief maybe because I was kind of depressed when I was that age.
This novel tells about Vivi, a girl who is in love with life and Jonah, a brother of 5 siblings who take care of the family after his father passed away. It’s just like a cheesy teeny romance when you didn’t read it but believe me, it is not. The story was written so well that I could understand why Jonah fell in love instantly with Vivi. He has spending the last six months of his life grieving and worrying about anything until Vivi burst out his life like fireworks. Jonah was too busy being sad that he didn’t realize how he deserved to be happy.
Vivi is a free spirited girl, she often babbles about her other life when she was a dolphin, a ballerina in 1920s, it’s like talking to an imaginary 5 years old kid, but strangely, you understand. It’s like the other side of you that always been inside but you never show it to anyone. And I love her interaction with Jonah, she could be vivacious and ignite the spirit of Jonah’s family, but she could be calm and listen to Jonah’s story. I personally love when Vivi said that Jonah was an oak tree in his past life, that’s why he feels deep roots with his family, that he still have instincts to protect the little ones. Because it really is what Jonah always does, I love how Viv could comfort Jonah in a way he never thinks of.
But you know, there wouldn’t be an interesting story without obstacles right? I didn’t knew something off with Vivi until the middle of the story. And I really understand it has to do with mental issues. Because we can feel everything all at once and then don’t feel anything the other time. And someone who brings positive energy to everyone, can be so low we want to drag everyone else to the base level of life. And I hate Vivi in the later part of the story, I hate the hypomanic phase of her, I hate the self centered part of her, I hate her craziness, but in some parts, I understand that too. And Jonah Jonah Jonah is just too good to be true, he can be mad sometimes, but he’s just too kind, too gentle to keep being mad at Vivi. And this is why maybe their relationship couldn’t be forced. A girl like Vivi understands this. I love the fact that they choose to heal theirselves first, that the story didn’t rush us to a happy ending but left us hanging for every possibility, every version of the ending. And whatever the ending, they would just love each other the same. This is sound realistic to me, and I prefer the realistic ending than the forced-to-be-happy one.
I love this novel more than All the Bright Places actually. I was really down reading All the Bright Places, this novel was just lighter. And I love the richness of words in this novel. When We Collided has a mixed up reviews of goodreads, but I choose to love this one.
“Maybe in my next life, I’ll be a wave in the ocean, and you’ll be a mountain, and we’ll spend years and years brushing up against each other. You’ll shift so painfully slowly, and some days I’ll crash right into you and other days I’ll approach gently”
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