Author: Sarah Crossan
Series: None
Pages: 400
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Verse
Date Published: September 15th, 2015
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Format Read: eARC provided by publisher (via Edelweiss) for honest review
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Summary:
Tippi and Grace share
everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free
verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined
twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi
Picoult, and Jandy Nelson.
Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it’s normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. The two sixteen-year-old girls have two heads, two hearts, and each has two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery.
But the girls’ body is beginning to fight against them. And soon they will have to face the impossible choice they have avoided for their entire lives.
Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it’s normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. The two sixteen-year-old girls have two heads, two hearts, and each has two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery.
But the girls’ body is beginning to fight against them. And soon they will have to face the impossible choice they have avoided for their entire lives.
-Goodreads
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My Thoughts:
An Open Letter To One,
Wow, you really packed an emotional punch. There is just something about a well written novel in verse that I can't dislike. You made me cry. Big, fat, crocodile tears. And it made me like you even more. I don't cry over everything, so the fact that you got some of my tears is a big accomplishment. Good on you!
-The White Unicorn
I didn't know what to expect when I headed into One. I've read a few other novels in verse form, and I actually like poetry a lot, but books in poem form usually miss the mark for me. One is not one of those books. Crossan has crafted a book that hits your right in all the emotions and it will most likely make you feel everything, even though the words are fairly sparse.
The book also happens to be centered around something that I didn't know much about before. Conjoined twins. Two very different girls, joined at the belly forever. They have their own separate upper bodies, which provides some interesting situations.
Crossan brings us into Grace and Tippi's lives. Gives them interesting backgrounds, a loving family, and their own agendas. I really liked getting to know them. What made them tick individually. She also gives them two really interesting friends. One of which will end up dying of HIV. I liked that Crossan chose to give the girls a friend who is also facing a possible premature death.
The facts of conjoined twins are looked at in a brutal light. I'm not saying that this novel is downer, because it actually had me laughing quite a bit. On the flip side, not everything is light and fluffy, hence all the crying I admitted to doing. I feel like this is a book that you just have to experience for yourself, and since it's in verse form, you can do that really quickly.
Read it, feel it, love it, and then when it's over cry your eyes out!
Rating:
5 Unicorns = Get your hands on this NOW!
1 comment:
This book seems so interesting. I can't even imagine the struggles of being a conjoined twin. I can just tell by your review that I will most likely cry like a big baby if I read this. Especially about the friend who has HIV.
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