I can appreciate Crossan’s storytelling but I have to say I’m just really not a fan of the story told i’m verse format, and knew I would be forcing myself through this.

I have reviewed this title on Goodreads and include the link below. Please follow the link for my review.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Well blow me over with a feather; We Come Apart is bloody fantastic.

We Come Apart is by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan and it is a story compromised of dual-perspective poetry. It focuses on the lives of Jess and Nicu. Both are young offenders and both have their own interesting backgrounds. Jess is from a broken family struggling to get along with those in her life – friends and family. Nicu and his family have emigrated from Romania and he is struggling to fit in with the ways of life in the UK.

The two of them form a friendship and together try and fight the forces that are against them.

We Come Apart is both heart-warming and heartbreaking. I consumed it in one sitting and at times was genuinely holding back the tears. It is a brilliant story that should be read by all.

We Come Apart by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan is available now.

For more information regarding Sarah Crossan (@SarahCrossan) please visit youtu.be/0szY-FFsOIQ.

For more information regarding Brian Conaghan (@BrianConaghan) please visit his Twitter page.

For more information regarding Bloomsbury Publishing (@KidsBloomsbury) please visit www.bloomsbury.com/childrens.

This book had such great potential but for all the wonderful writing and character development that took place, it still felt very disjointed. I did really enjoy the relationship between the two characters and couldn't help but get swept up in their journey together but yeah, there was just something about reading the book in verse that made it hard for me to keep coming back.

Definitely recommend picking it up for yourself and checking out some other reviews because I feel like I'm in a minority.

I really wanted to like this book, as I thought the premise; bad girl with problems meets immigrant boy with problems, and the form (alternating narrative perspectives in verse form) were interesting. However I was disappointed and found We come apart a frustrating read.

I think my frustration came from the fact that the plot and characters seemed undeveloped, and at times the dialogue felt cliched, and even perpetuating stereotypes which I thought the book wanted to counteract.

Some of the writing was lovely, but I really wouldn’t recommend this, so my true rating is 2.5!

Sarah Crossan can do so little wrong in my eyes, but I'm not a huge fan of the paired writing structure so beloved of YA authors. Nevertheless, it's a light, easy read although there is often a marked difference between the quality of chapters. It remains creative and confident throughout.

A ‘Romeo and Juliet’ story of troubled teens underpinned by themes of immigration, racism and domestic abuse. Told from the viewpoints of the two main characters in verse.

Book Review:

We Come Apart was the first book that I finished this year and I started it on a whim thinking that I could just start it that night and finish it in the morning. This was a very made mistake as I was captivated by this book and stayed up way later than I should.

We Come Apart follows two teenagers in this verse novel with one narrative told by the respected authors. It wasn't something that I knew much about when I first started and was surprised by the narratives of both characters and their journeys throughout the book with the ending being a big surprise.

Both Crossan and Conaghan capture characters whose voices need to be heard and make you care about them through their trials and tribulations. This makes it an enjoyable and captivating novel.

The Verdict:

We Come Apart is an interesting and captivating novel that will leave impressions on you, which will leave you thinking about it months after you first read it.

Thank you very much for allowing me to read this title; I am trying to read as widely as possible ahead of the Carnegie/Greenaway nominations and awards for 2018 and your help is much appreciated.
As a Carnegie/Greenaway judge, I'm not allowed to comment about my opinions on specific titles so I can't offer an individual review on any title as I stated on my profile.
Netgalley now requires a star rating so I am giving all titles 5 stars so as not to disadvantage any title but this does not imply any recommendation of the book above any other.

Short read about two London teenagers in difficult home situations who find hope in each other. I enjoyed the verse aspect but found the book rather bleak.

Plot: Nicu and Jess come from two completely backgrounds. Nicu is a Romanian refugee suffering awful racist bullying at school; Jess is suffering with her own abusive home life. Each feels isolated in their own way and are the most unusual pairing as friends, but (of course predictably for the genre and title!) they are drawn to each other.

My thoughts: While We Come Apart is a YA novel so quite a standard read for me, it was a really interesting one for reasons that are different to my usual. First, it’s told in alternating chapters between the two characters but written in verse. Secondly, it’s also written in the characters’ own voices, so Nicu’s chapters at first may seem confusing because they’re written in broken English. The effect of this however is something outstanding. It brings you closer to understanding the frustrations of the characters, and the telling in verse makes the pace of the story run so quickly that it’s almost impossible to put down.
The story itself was good and I liked it, however it was the way it was told that kept me gripped. It does have that rushed instant love storyline that many YA books have, but I do sometimes love that. It’s one to read even just for the different way of storytelling.

A very relevant read in these times of Brexit and discussion about immigration. This book makes you think and feel and as in the real world, happy endings are usually the thing of fiction.

I've read one book by Sarah Crossan before (One), but never something by Brian Conaghan. I really loved One and it had such an impact on me, so I had high expectations for this. I actually wasn't aware until I started reading it that it was written in free verse like One, and I was pleasantly surprised! When I read One, it was refreshing to read something written in a style I've never read before, so I was excited to get started with We Come Apart. It made is such a fast read - I probably read the whole book in an hour or two, max.

I loved the writing styles straight away. The story is told from two POVs - Jess, an English girl with an abusive step-dad and a tendency to bunk off school; and Nicu, a boy from Romania who speaks in broken English and is set to marry into an arranged marriage sooner than he'd wish to think about. Jess and Nicu form an unexpected friendship, and the story follows them as they get to know each other.

Jess' family life is awful, and I found myself rooting for her to get out of her horribly toxic home. I also hated the people who bullied Nicu. It was so relevant to now: kids called him a 'gyppo', spat at him for being a 'foreigner' and told him to go back to where he came from. There were even mentions of Brexit and his 'kind' ruining the country. I really hated them all and I really hoped he's stand his ground. He didn't deserve that!

The ending came so suddenly. The whole story wasn't overly fast-paced, but the ending raced! I was so surprised that it ended when it did and I really want more to the story! It was so well-done though and when the characters are thrown into the unknown, the reader is too.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different to most books I've read and it was a very quick read. I liked how it was so relevant and topical with the themes of racism, and it really made me think about how people from other countries feel. It almost made me want to give it to every racist bully in the world and say to them, "READ THIS and see how it really affects people!"

I can't wait to read more by Sarah Crossan and Brian Conaghan!

This was the first time that I have ever read a book written in verse and I surprised myself by really enjoying it. I thought it added a dimension to the book that would have been completely lost had this been told as a normal novel.

Contrasting the lives of Jess and Nicu, We Come Apart shows just what can happen when two people from two very different worlds come together. The story is told in alternating ‘chapters’ from each of their voices. Initially this can be a little confusing as it doesn’t explicitly tell you who is speaking but once you learn their voices it is easy to tell.

I loved reading Nicu’s chapters in broken English and how his vocabulary developed along the way. It was a very clever way of showing the complexity of the English language too and some of what Nicu said did make me giggle a little. I thought Nicu’s character was absolutely adorable. Whilst I was initially a little less positive towards Jess, it soon became clear that there was much more going on with her than first meets the eye and there were many moments during her parts where I was holding my breath for her.

Overall I thought this was a quick and interesting read although I was hoping for a bit more from the ending. The character development was excellent and I enjoyed reading a story in a less traditional format.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I must admit I didn’t read the blurb properly on this book. It came through in a reader recommend thing from Netgalley on my email. I was at work at the time and just glanced it over, the premise was enough to peek my interest. So I put in a request. I didn’t actually read that it was a novel in verse.

I’m not a fan of novels in verse. I’ve never read one, the concept just holds no interest to me. While this was certainly a quick read, I read most of it during my lunch hour and finished it off at home, probably under two hours reading time in all. I can’t say I was blown away by the telling of a novel in verse. I find it distracting and annoying.

I can’t say I liked the story that much either. It’s a UK based novel, set in London. I found the main character Jess very hard to have much sympathy for. Which makes me feel horrible because she comes from a really awful home situation. Very passive mother who has an absolute asshole of an abusive boyfriend who beats her and rules with an iron fist of fear and intimidation.

It’s downright scary to read about. Especially must be awful for Jess who clearly loves her mum but can’t do anything about it. Jess has a definite attitude problem and potty mouth, clearly puts a tough girl act on and has some bitchy tough girl friends. It’s not that I had no empathy for Jess, there were times when I felt terrible for what she was going through. Given her circumstances, her attitude is not at all surprising. But I just didn’t like her.

Jess finds herself arrested for shoplifting. Instead of juvenile detention she gets a community service sentence, clearing up trash in her local park.

The saving grace of this book was Nicu. I loved Nicu to pieces. He made reading this whole book worthwhile. Nicu’s family are Polish immigrants, looking to make money in the UK. They want to make some decent cash to take back home to their village to give Nicu a good start with a new wife, arranged by his parents and the parents of a girl from their village. Nicu gets no say in this. He has no interest in getting married at all.

He’s a decent boy, who in a stupid moment tried shop lifting and got caught. Because he’s an immigrant and because he doesn’t speak very good English, he gets caught and in trouble, but he’s given the same community service option given to Jess. Nicu seems like a nice guy who generally tries to do the right thing. He just caved under pressure of a future he has no desire for and no options to really do something for himself. He made a bad decision and there were consequences for his action. Which he understands and takes responsibility for, by doing what is required of him. Unfortunately, this means attending English school too.

He meets Jess at the same community service programme. They have nothing to say to each other at first, but notice each other. And soon find ways of talking to each other. They also both go to the same school and of course notice each other there as well. Jess appears to be embarrassed to be seen talking to Nicu. Her friends are the popular kids, and they are bullies. Nicu suffers terrible bullying, and while Jess doesn’t take part in the name calling and pranks, she doesn’t exactly do anything to stop it either.

But Nicu has such a heart wrenching tone of voice, it’s solid and dependable, and as he struggles to cope with his situation he finds Jess to be his reason for going on. As far as he’s concerned the sun rises and sets on her. He’s completely infatuated. And she eventually starts to thaw, little pieces of her tough girl personality slipping aside as Nicu breaks through her layers of protection and starts to get to know a whole different side of Jess.

Of course given their respective parental situations, nothing is easy going. Jess’s friends don’t make I any easier, and neither do the boy bullies in their class. One bad decision leads to another and Nicu and Jess find themselves with a horrible choice to make.

While the novel certainly hit some rough emotional notes, I didn’t really think much of the way it ended. While one character got a break, one didn’t. And…it just didn’t sit right with me, that one gets away clean and the other makes a huge sacrifice. They both should have got a new start.

I can’t say I will be reading another novel in verse any time soon. If either of the two authors wrote a contemporary YA that wasn’t in verse, I would be interested. This novel really didn’t work for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & AUS) for approving my request to view the title.

I came to Sarah Crossan in 2015 – you can read my review of One here if you wanna or if you didn’t here’s a summary: LOVED IT. As did other people because it won the Carnegie Medal last year. Whoop. So I did a bit of a chair shimmy when I spotted this little book. I liked it. In a similar way to One (and I wonder if this is Crossan’s thing) it’s narrated in verse. That, right off the bat, is a thing you should know that I enjoyed a whoooole lot. I loved it in One too (perhaps a little more there actually but that’s not the point) because it’s different. I like different. I like discovering stories in a shiny new way and poetry fascinates me really; I don’t read much of it, I always wish that I did but I don’t mostly because I actually have zero clue where to begin with it, so a book like this, I guess it’s kind of like a gateway… and I think that might be my favourite thing about this book. Pretty words are used prettily. GIVE ME ALL OF THAT.

The rest of it…I dunno, I have mixed emotions. I mean, mostly I liked it but it bugged me also.

As characters go, Nicu was lush. Seriously, this kid is totally adorable, with his broken English and his not being quite sure how to fit in and all of this shit that is following him around from all directions and how happy he is regardless, how he’s so determined to not let any of it get to him. He’s a regular little Pollyanna which just made me love him harder and when you put him next to Jess (who, for the record is much less adorable) you cannot help but want to squish his little face.
Jess however is a bit of a dick, a dick who’s having a rough time and who you also feel terrible for and I have a whole shedload of feelings about her situation that I am not going to get into because ouch and yes you absolutely want to love and protect her but still. Dick.
The story between the two of them is a little bit insta-love, but I am not knocking off points for that even though I normally would because, well because I don't want to frankly. See above point about being my own person. Also this is a teeny small book so you know, I guess it kind of makes sense.

The actual story itself is good and I liked it (apart from the ending which made me a little bit WTF and not in a good Sarah Pinborough way but in an actual genuine ‘WTF but why’ way because I DO NOT ONLY WANT HALF A HAPPY ENDING.

Actually not even half a happy ending.

A quarter happy ending.

That’s what this book gave me, a quarter happy ending and it’s a problem for me that because I really don’t like getting invested in a book and then feeling dissatisfied by the ending. If an ending is even what it was. I think I just want resolution. Which is a tick in the ‘this book was good column’ because it totally made me care) and it’s lovely, the way it unravels.
I wonder how Crossan and Conaghan put it all together actually; I suspect one wrote Jess’s voice and the other Nicu’s because they’re so very distinct…whatever it is though, it works. Their voices gel well together.

It’s very well-timed this book, what with the way the world is at the moment (and what the world is, is fucked up)
It’s incredibly relevant and pitched nicely, so as not to be preachy you know. It doesn’t ram any kind of message down your throat. It’s this story about these two teenagers who have shitty home lives finding each other and deciding they want things to be different. The fact that one of them, Nicu, is a Romanian is just there you know? Rather than being a book with an important message about immigrants and racism, it’s a book about two messed up kids, one who just happens to be from someplace else. Which actually no, that’s not right because racism is a major theme here. It’s such a massive part of Nicu’s story and it matters; Nicu was the target of a shit load of racism and that made my blood boil because people are fuckwits are they not? Am I contradicting myself? I hate when I do that. I think what I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t feel like a lecture, like Nicu is a token character to get a message across. It’s subtler than that and somehow more powerful for that subtlety? It’s kind of a quiet feeling of hopelessness almost, that sneaks up on you. Again: liked that.

I did like it, I did, I just….the ending. THE ENDING.

We Come Apart was published earlier this year which means you can get your paws on a copy right now. Go forth. And then come back and talk to me about whether you liked it and how adorable Nicu is and how you feel about books that are not formatted the way other books are. Let's chat.

Loved this, I loved the gaps in the free verse which added to what the reader understood. Gorgeous