I really liked this a lot and was happy to squeeze in a really good book on the last day of the year, but also happy that I didn’t feel compelled to revise my Top Ten of 2019 list.
Add this to the growing number of books I’ve read in the past five years that are about adults on the autism spectrum.
In the “present” day (2001) Annika and Jonathan run into each other at the store. They had an intense relationship in college, but haven’t seen each other in ten years. We’re not really sure how they went from being in love and ready to start a life together to a decade of communication, but eventually that is revealed. The point of view not only goes back and forth between present and 1991, when they fell in love, but also back and forth between Annika and Jonathan. I really liked these characters a lot and was really rooting for them. I also really liked Annika’s friend and roommate Janice, who I hope grew up to be a social worker or counselor because she always knew the right thing to say and was such a good friend to Annika. When Annika starts college it is pretty overwhelming for her-she’s been homeschooled since seventh grade. On top of not understanding social situations and people, that really impacts her ability to fit in. I assumed that for this story to work the author picked the 1991 setting because in 2019 there’s no way that Annika would not have been diagnosed with autism. No one in her family ever says autism and Annika does not even say it about herself. She’s just “different.”
A lot has changed in the decade since they were together and I very much wanted them to have a second chance, happily ever after ending.
The Last Book I Read 