Review: Nothing But Blue by Lisa Jean-Claugh

The moment I finished reading the summary for this book, I was left trying to piece what little information it gave. What is this book about? What's missing? What's lacking? What do I need to know for me have an idea what it really is about? Is it dystopian? Post apocalyptic? Contemporary? What I know is it's something tragic. All I know is this story, which I had no idea what to expect of when I plunged into it, is a book I am glad I've read.

Title: Nothing But Blue by Lisa Jahn-Clough
Release Date: May 7th 2013
Published by: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Source: Publisher
Buy: Amazon | Book Depository

Summary:

All dead. No one survived. All dead.

This morbid chant haunts seventeen-year-old Blue as she trudges through the countryside with just the clothes on her back, heading to her childhood home on the ocean. Something absolutely awful has happened, she knows it, but she doesn’t know what. She can’t even remember her name, so she calls herself Blue. This gripping survival story—peppered with flashbacks to bittersweet times with her boyfriend, Jake—strips life down to its bare bones. Blue learns, with the help of a seemingly magical stray dog and kind people along the road, that the important thing is to live.

She didn't know her name, she didn't know why she was someplace that is not her house, why she's out in the rain, why she couldn't remember anything. All she hears is the chanting in her head and a voice telling her to go someplace else. To go to the sea, and she'll find her answers there. So Blue walked, and as her life, divided in broken scenes known as before and now, started to unfold, Blue knew she had to finish her journey to discover just what she has lost. Blue didn't count on the fact that as she walked, she will embark on a journey that will change not just her life, but give her the strength to face everything once she remembers.

There is something about Blue's situation that just makes me want to stay by her from the start of her journey up to the end. I wanted to experience her sense of loss and see her through it as she starts to remember. It's a very painful process, through all the ugly memories, dark emotions, the hunger, the longing, that struggle to grasp the moments in her life that she had lost, the regrets. That stubborn will to survive despite all of the challenges she encounters. I see Blue in her lowest moments both in the before and the now and it felt surreal at first to think that the Blue in the before and the now were the same person. It was tough not remembering, but the journey to gain what she had lost was tougher. Blue experienced things a seventeen year old shouldn't met people she ordinarily won't even cross paths with, and there were a few that helped her put her life in perspective, some that see right through her and discover that the girl inside, though stubborn she is, needs help.

I loved Snake. Among all the people Blue had met, those hardened by the situations life had thrown their way, Snake looked at Blue's way and immediately saw her, not just as the fat girl who's hard on her parents and has made foolish mistakes in her life and now trying to fix it, but someone who's going through the same pain he did. He's that guy you never expected to get help from but surprisingly is the one who can help you the most. He's funny, weird, and wise. A kindred soul, perhaps?

Lisa Jahn Clough's writing was so simple yet it affects a reader in ways unexpected. I felt the ache and the longing Blue felt, the desperation, the sense of lost, of not knowing what to do. I saw life in the eyes of the countless people Blue had met, the lost, the homeless, the ones trying to find where they want to go and what they want to do with their lives. Those who've lost and see that life doesn't end there. Those who become strong by acknowledging that they needed help. It's an eye opener, seeing life in various ways and finding hope in each one of them.

If I were to choose two words to describe this book, it is: hopeful and beautiful. It presents that kind of sadness that you know you must face because it will make you stronger in the end. A real wonderful read, and I think I just found another author who writes wonderful prose. I am definitely recommending this book. It's not dystopian, or post apocalyptic, but it's about a girl who's lost something, and she's determined to get it back, no matter how hard and painful it is. Raw and gritty at times, but this novel is really, really good.

Content (plot, story flow, character):
There were things about Blue that turned me off, especially who she was in the 'before', and I couldn't grasp her character during those times.

Shining: Worthy of a Goddess' Love!

Book Cover:
I am in love with the cover.

* If you leave a comment on this post it'll count it as 1 entry for the Nothing But Blue finished copy giveaway I will be posting this Friday! (US only)