Review: When We Collided

When We Collided by Emery Lord
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It seems to me ambivalence is the way to win a Goodreads giveaway. Whenever I’m ambivalent about winning a book, when I’m not overly fussed about winning, I seem to win. Such is the case with Emery Lord’s When We Collided. When We Collided is one of those books I’d seen a lot of, one of those books I felt a mild curiosity towards, but I wasn’t crazy excited about reading it. My main feeling towards the book was curiosity – I have read such mixed reviews, and I wished to see where I fell upon the divide.

In truth, my feelings towards When We Collide are rather mixed. I enjoyed parts of the story but not others – in many ways, I feel as though it tried to be too many things. It is a story of mental illness, a story about loss, and a teenage love story. Individually the elements of the story were enjoyable enough – some more than others – but when put together, I feel as though it missed the mark.

The mental illness element of the story was my favourite element. It demonstrated the highs and lows of bipolar really well, showing it is much more complex than people seem to realise. It shows us the complexity involved both for the individual and those around them, of how hard it can be to realise what other people are going through.

The other element I really enjoyed was the story of loss. As with the mental illness element, it covers a range of aspects involved in such a storyline. It was deep and touching, and you really come to feel for the people involved. It shows how different people deal, how different people work through the myriad of emotions.

My least favourite element was the romantic storyline. There were moments where it seemed to try too hard to be a cute love story, but I was never really invested in the relationship. It felt to me as though it took away from the other deeper elements. It seemed to me the story would have worked better had the characters simply been friends, helping each other through their problems, rather than forcing a romantic element upon the characters. It didn’t feel natural to me, it felt too forced.

Overall, this book had potential, but it tried to be too many things. Certain elements were done well, yet other elements failed to hit the spots it could have. Whilst I didn’t love it, I did not hate it either. At the very least, I can say I have read it.

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