Dreaming of Antigone was an impulse purchase based off a recommendation of a friend. I enjoyed the story, but I did have a few problems with it. TRIGGER WARNING for rape, drugs, sexual assault and suicide.
Synopsis:
“I can’t ever be the blazing star that Iris was. I’m still just a cold, dark satellite orbiting a star that went super nova.”
Andria’s twin sister, Iris, had adoring friends, a cool boyfriend, a wicked car, and a shelf full of soccer trophies. She had everything, in fact—including a drug problem. Six months after Iris’s death, Andria is trying to keep her grades, her friends, and her family from falling apart. But stargazing and books aren’t enough to ward off her guilt that she—the freak with the scary illness and all-black wardrobe—is still here when Iris isn’t. And then there’s Alex Hammond. The boy Andria blames for Iris’s death. The boy she’s unwittingly started swapping lines of poetry and secrets with, even as she tries to keep hating him.
Heartwrenching, smart, and bold, Dreaming of Antigone is a story about the jagged pieces that lie beneath the surface of the most seemingly perfect life…and how they can fit together to make something wholly unexpected”
I had a lot of mixed feelings about this book. It was predictable yet everything was still heartbreaking. The author does a really good job of throwing so many things into such a small book. The story was very quick, I read the entire thing in one sitting without putting it down once.
First of all, this book does very heavily surround the relationship between the main character Andria and Alex. They have a pretty solid hate to love relationship that was pretty enjoyable to read. The only thing I will say is that Andria does forgive Alex really quickly despite claiming to hate him so much. I’m going to chalk this up to the fact that the book is short and otherwise it would have been a lot more boring.
The family aspects in this book was interesting. Alex has two moms and isn’t really accepted at home. Andria is still getting over the death of her sister and after (insert huge spoiler here that results in her step dad leaving) the relationship she has with her mom is very strained. Andria goes through a lot and for the most part she deals with it alone.
I really liked reading from Andria’s point of view. She was still very upset about her sister’s death and had to deal with seizures. She was a very strong protagonist for a YA contemporary. It’s not often that YA contemporary books have mentally strong female characters and It was very enjoyable to read about her journey.
This book was very predictable. It was enjoyable, I loved it…. but I could easily guess a lot of the plot twists that happened during this short book. Packed full of romance, sadness, and unfortunate reality Dreaming of Antigone was an enjoyable one sitting read.
Pages: 244
Published: March 29th 2016
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Sam
I may check this out this summer. I tend to read contemporaries then, but I prefer the feel good ones so we’ll see what my TBR looks like
Kat of Not the Path to Narnia
This sounds like a really good in between fantasy novels read!