Omg......... this book was amazing I flew threw the pages with Olympic speed I was hooked from the very first page. I found it full of twists and turns threw out and it kept me on the edge of my seat all the way threw  I would defiantly recommend this book if you like a good book to keep you reading threw the night hopefully you enjoy it as much as I did

Paper Moon Press and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Who We Are Instead (alternate title Before You Break). I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The novel is told in dual perspective format, with sisters Lena and Lux giving voice to their thoughts and feelings. Lena McKenna is attending university in Florida when she gets the news that her father has suffered a debilitating heart attack. To make matters worse, her high school aged sister Lux is nowhere to be found. Going home to Kalamazoo in the middle of the semester, instead of preparing for an all important art competition, was not what Lena had planned. Will Lena be able to repair her broken family before it is too late? In trying to help her father find peace, will Lena find a way to help herself and her sister?

YA readers may find Who We Are Instead to be relatable, as the book tackles difficult themes such as drug and alcohol abuse, death, teen pregnancy, and betrayal. Lux's downward spiral was very painful to read and very realistic. The strained relationship between the three McKennas, a dysfunctional family that could not find their way back to each other after a tragedy, was very raw. All of the pain and anguish is balanced with a small measure of hope and readers will not be able to resist rooting for Lux and Lena. I would recommend Who We Are Instead to YA readers and I look forward to reading more by the author in the future.

“It’s all frivolous, meaningless. The only things that matter are already gone or almost gone. Already put aside in my safe, tidy compartment of lost things.”- Lena from ‘Who We Are Instead’

 

Hello people of the internet!!! On today’s ‘Monday Memos’ we’re going to review a new book called ‘Who We Are Instead’ by Kyla Stone, which was provided by for review by ‘Paper Moon Press’. This is a very interesting book that touches on themes of loss, love, family, & finding your purpose in life. Fair warning this book does discuss mental illness, child abuse/neglect, drug/alcohol use, undetermined rape self-harm, & suicide, so if these issues are triggering to you, please don’t read this book, or proceed with caution. Now let’s get to the review. Ready? Ok, let’s go!!!

 

‘Who We Are Instead’ follows the dual perspectives of sisters Lena & Lux McKenna as they are forced to confront their individual personal demons when their father has a heart attack & is given a very small window of time to live. Lena must return home from her arts college where she is studying photography, & take on her role as “the responsible one”, while trying to resolve her issues with 18 year old “wild child” Lux. As we learn more about Lena, we see that issues from her childhood have cause her to become a more guarded & introverted person. Contrary to Lena, Lux has no desire to succeed in school, likes to party, smoke, do drugs, & drink a lot, & also leaves home for weeks at a time without informing anyone as to where she’s going.

 

So now we’ve reached the big question, is this book worth your time? Honestly the answer is a very loud yes! In this book we not only get to experience both girls perspectives, but also get a very strong sense of who they are as people, what has shaped them, & what’s important to them. We also get romance plots for both girls, & get introduced to Lux’s AMAZING childhood friends. I also really like that all of the characters we meet are flawed in some way of another, & the author does not attempt to redeem each of them which unfortunately does often mirror our own world very closely. With Lena & Lux’s stories we see how similar past experiences can cause different reactions in each person. We see that some people fight the past they are given to create the future they desire, while others run from their past in order to numb the pain & protect themselves. ‘Who We Are Instead’ gives us a very realistic & gripping tale of what can happen when a fractured family finally shatters, while also leaving the ending as ambiguous & open to promise as Lena & Lux themselves are. Definitely a 5 star read that’s will give you all the feels, but as also make you think about these very important issues.

This is a book full of some heavy issues but the author has dealt with them well. The book belongs in all high school libraries because reading it could help a student or two on the brink of disaster. Reading this one toook me on a ride of mainy emotions but I found it well worth the read and not easily forgotten.

It was hard to enjoy this book as the emotion that Lena was going through felt very real - it was an intense read, feeling the decline of her father, and the broken relationship with Lux. I felt hope throughout the book that, though knowing her father would not survive, that her relationship(s) would pull together, and loved the ending.

This book felt like it was written for teenagers by an adult, which is not, by my standards, a good thing. Conversation often felt stilted with messages being pushed, and the plot lines and characters were very contrived. Every breakthrough felt false and overdone and I couldn't really find myself rooting for anyone.

Who We Are Instead by Kyla Stone tells the troubled story of two sisters, Lena and Lux, navigating a troubled relationship and the difficult journey of bereavement. Told in alternating perspectives, Lena left home years ago to go to university and escape her father and sister after her mom committed suicide and the family fell apart. Lux was stuck at home, turning into a party girl who didn't care about anyone or anything, on the verge of failing high school. But then their dad has another heart attack and Lena comes home for the first time in years. But when she gets on the next flight home, she finds Lux has disappeared and her father telling her to let her be.

The novel unfolds with Lena revisiting her past and Lux trying to forget all about her past and present. As Lux falls deeper and deeper down a black home, Lena is racing to find out her past's secrets from her dad and reconnect to Lux. Until their dad dies and leaves them both orphans, and Lux disappears again - this time straight to a drug dealer's home.

Can Lena and Lux overcome their issues jointly and independently in order to come out on the other side? Can they find the peace they're looking for and move on with their lives?

This novel explores dark issues and tugs on your emotions as you follow the sisters' journey. Kyla Stone allows you to easily empathize with Lena and Lux and root for them to overcome their past for a better future.

Review left on Amazon as 'charmed' and author aware

This is the story of Lux and Lena, two sisters trying to find themselves in the midst of the ruins of their family. Lena, who sees the world through the lens of her camera, has to leave college to come home and tend to her dying father. Lux, the wild child, refuses to face her father's condition and her own irresponsibility and tries to self-destruct. In the end, they both find redemption, of a sort. The characters are well-realized and although the story is sad, it has a real ring of truth that kept me engaged and hoping for the best for both sisters.

"Some pain is good pain."

So says Lux, who by hiding from pain, finds even more pain along the way. This is one of those really good books with incredibly hard subject matter. It had me saying 'I'm not crying, you're crying' so much.

Let's start at the beginning. We join this book as Lena, a 20-year-old photography student in Florida, is in a darkroom preparing prints. She receives news that her father has had a heart attack, and has to travel back home to Michigan. Lena has avoided going home in general for a few years, we are told, but she packs up and heads home to take care of her father. She goes straight to the hospital to be with her father and find out just how bad the diagnosis is. Her dad has already had multiple heart attacks over the past couple of years, treatment options have failed and have run out, and the doctors say he is in the final stages of congestive heart failure. Having no other options, Lena says she will be the caretaker for her parent.

Lux is the 17-year-old younger sister with a severe avoidance complex when it comes to dealing with dying parents. Outwardly she is fun, exciting, bold, brazen, charismatic, beautiful, and yet to her family she is flighty and wild and unreliable at best. Lux's coping strategies are incredibly harmful emotionally and physically. The author does not glorify her behavior as she dallies into drinking, drugs, boys--but it is told in such a real, natural manner of speaking that you can see all of the dangers she is headed towards if you've had any friends or family in similar situations.

I love that this book sheds light on mental health and the dangers and manifestations it can have on physical well-being. I love that it has two sisters that have criticized each other so fiercely, categorized each other the way only sisters can, but yet that sibling bond is still there, shining brightly in the gray, harsh days--giving them a chance to find a way back to each other if only they will hear each other out. I love that Lena, who was trying to stay as far away from home as possible, will drop everything to be there for her family. And I love that Lux represents a type of person that we easily dismiss as flighty or selfish or wild or aloof, when really they are doing their best to conceal anguish.

Kyla's writing is well-crafted, poignant, and rings very true for her Lux and Lena. These sister are incredibly real and relatable. There were a couple of paragraphs here and there which were a little "tell" instead of "show". They took me out of the story, but only for a moment before I was entrenched in it again. I'll be interested to see what her next novel may be.

I am not going to offer a synopsis of the book as you can read the one already provided by the publisher, and IMO I think this is the kinda book you have to enter as spoiler free as possible. That said, if the book summary has caught your eye, you will probably enjoy the book.

We follow the story of two sisters who hail from a broken home, with broken parents, leaving them broken. Each one of them is coping in the way they can: one, Lena, seems to be the perfect one: she has left to pursue her dreams and is in college to learn Photography; while Lux, the rebellious one, is trying to find her way but only seems to be losing herself more and more. But all who has grown apart is gping to collide sooner rather than later...

I loved this book because the story we find in here is not a sweet easy one, but dark. Raw. Brutal. Brilliant.
The characters are really fleshed out. Alive. Broken. Human.
This are the kind of stories I like to see written because it takes guts to represent life in paper. Not easy life, but bruising life. Life which changes people, which turns things inside out and leaves you raw and exposed.
Kuddos to the author for this.

I really enjoyed this book. I think it handles some very difficult subjects to deal with (like abuse, mental health issues and suicide) and it does so well. I think it very accurately portrays how two people can go through the same experience and emerge from it with completely different perspectives/memories of it. Lena from a perspective of having unhappier memories from her childhood and Lux full of more positive memories for the most part. I will admit to not entirely guessing Lux’s big secret but I did have a feeling of what it would relate too and I felt horrible for what she had to deal with at such a young age. I feel bad with some of the results of everything that happened but I understand that in reality not everything can have a happy ending.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.


GoodReads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1914739910

Thank you Netgalley. Absolute brilliant book about mental health issues and hits home many points and triggers. The descriptions are beautiful and the emotions genuine. Cannot recommend this book highly enough. An emotional ride

There are two things that really bugged me about this book. The first being a scene where a guy stops a rape from happening and he says he stops it because he’s not a bad guy and he has a sister. This has always annoyed me, people don’t need to envision their sisters, mothers or wives to pity victims and stop crimes why couldn’t he just stop the rape because she’s a human being and no one deserves that. Another thing is how many sacrifices the elder sister makes and how it’s encouraged by the love interest like this girl needs to be selfish and put herself first. However I did like the portrayal of mental illness especially with Lux’s character.