Endless Love by Scott Spencer
Because I am trying to get caught up on a bunch of reviews that I never did, I actually read Endless Love quite a while ago, now. I requested it from the library because I wanted to see the new remake that came out with Alex Pettyfer in it (who I like) and I wanted to read the book first even though I figured that the movie (both of them, really) weren't going to be much like the book. I didn't really know what to expect but I requested it anyway and was very excited to read it when it arrived.
So, first, a quick summary from Amazon: "Seventeen-year-old David Axelrod is consumed with his love for Jade Butterfield. So when Jade’s father exiles him from their home, David does the only thing he thinks is rational: He burns down their house. Sentenced to a psychiatric institution, David’s obsession metastasizes, and upon his release, he sets out to win the Butterfields back by any means necessary."
This book deserves to be read on its own merits and without comparison to the movies supposedly based on it so do your best to forget them before you start. You'll find the book much more enjoyable for it. Because Endless Love is not a love story. It's a story of obsession, and how that obsession that is sometimes called "love" can destroy a life.
The book opens with David explaining how he ended up in the hospital—by accidentally setting fire to the Butterfields' house. While in the institution, David's obsession with Jade only grows until it consumes him and it is this that leads him through the rest of the novel as he grows more and more desperate to win back not only Jade but all of the Butterfields that David has grown so close to. David's parents are austere, distant and the Butterfields are exactly the family that David has always wanted to be a part of. Warm, loving, chaotic, open.
Endless Love was unlike anything else I've read and I really enjoyed it. You spend all of your time inside of David's head and, though at the start things seem simple, as we learn more about David and his life, and the life of the Butterfields, things seem perhaps less simple. I loved that we only see David's side of things; we are forced to think about what really happened and how it may differ from the story David decided to tell.
My biggest problem with the book was that, at times, it could feel a little long. But it held my interest throughout and I had very little problem making it through to the end. Getting through the possibly a little slower parts is worth it, because it really is about this overwhelming obsession and you have to know how it ends up. Will it destroy all of these people?
Final: B+








