*May Contain Spoilers*
In April 2015, Carrie Hope Fletcher published her first book, All I Know Now, a non-fiction in which Carrie shared anecdotes from her life whilst giving advice along the way. It was very heartfelt and I could tell that she had worked so hard on it.
Now, over a year later, Carrie has released her second book, her first novel, On The Other Side and the only thing that's different between this and All I Know Now is that this book is fiction.
Despite filming and editing YouTube videos and performing in Les Miserables in London until October last year, I can tell that Carrie has, once again, put her heart and soul into her book. From watching her videos, I know how much she has always wanted to be an author and to finally know she has accomplished that dream couldn't make me happier.
This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. It's heartfelt and tells a unique story. The main protagonist is Evie Snow and the book begins with her waking up in the afterlife. Unfortunately, she can't get through to heaven as her soul is too heavy because of the three secrets she's been keeping to herself her whole life: the black bird, the shoe box and the good tree. This book is split into the three parts and shows Evie releaving herself of those secrets. However, the book doesn't always stay with Evie. In a few chapters, we see how her family are coping after her death. It also tells a beautiful love story between Evie and Vincent. I've seen a lot of romantic films and read a lot of books that contained love stories but Evie and Vincent's love story is, by far, one of the best told love stories. When I was reading about Evie's love for Vincent, I fell in love with him too and I even wished he was real. Unfortunately, because of Evie's mother, Eleanor, she is forced to marry a man she doesn't love, James, and the two end their relationship. My heart broke as I wanted Evie to have her happy ending but, as I carried on reading, I realised that she does get her happy ending with Vincent, just not in the way one might have hoped. On the front cover of the book, it says 'a love story like no other...' and I can definitely say that that is true.
One of the things I loved about this book was that Carrie included characters, who were part of the LGBT+ community. In all honesty, the only other book I've read that has included a character that was homosexual was John Green's Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I definitely think that more books need to include characters of all sexualities instead of the typical 'girl-meets-boy-and-falls-in-love-with-boy' cliche. As it turns out, Vincent is bisexual and we learn about his relationships with previous men and women he'd been with. In this book, Carrie proves that it doesn't matter what your gender or sexuality is, love is love and I definitely felt that when reading this. Evie's brother, Eddie, is gay but hasn't come out to his parents as they are homophobic but there is a brilliant part in the book where he does eventually come out and it made me laugh because of how he did it and it showed that he couldn't care less what his parents think.
I also loved how the book was structured. Like I mentioned earlier, it's split into the three different secrets and it shows Evie in the afterlife but we also see her past too. I was amazed by how Carrie managed to cleverly plan her story out so that everything makes sense and isn't confusing.
A lot of people have wondered when it is set and if it's a fantasy. Carrie has said that it isn't set in any time or any where as time only plays one part in the story. This is because she feels that if she set the book in a certain time period, certain things such as technology, clothing, hair styles, speech, accents, music and others would have to be referenced and these are the things that don't contribute to the story in any way. Yes, we're given mild descriptions of the character when we first meet them but we don't need to know what a character looks like in order for us to connect with them. It's the same with all the other things as well.
This book made me feel so many different emotions such as: love, happiness, heartbreak, sadness and hopefulness and that's the first time I've felt so many different emotions at once whilst reading a book. This is because I really connected with Evie as a character. In all honesty, I didn't want her story to end but when the book did end, I didn't feel sad. I felt happy because I knew, like all good stories, that it had to end and I knew that Evie could finally enter the afterlife with the person she truly loved.
Overall, Carrie Hope Fletcher tells a meaningful story that is full of love and will most likely make you cry.
4/5
Read my review of Carrie Hope Fletcher's non-fiction book, All I Know Now here.
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