My first introduction to Sophie Gonzales who has since gone on to be a YA superstar.

This story isn't for everyone due to the subject matter, which is completely understandable, but it is great at tackling some complex issues and was a read that I loved. The mental illness and LGBT rep was really well done and lead to an emotional read.

The suspense and mystery of figuring out what happened to Ash was really intriguing and I think more stories like these should be published.

This book is about Ash's death and James(Ash's boyfriend) is trying to cope and wants to know what happened to Ash. He doesn't believe Ash who kill himself so, he is trying to find Elliot(Ash's Brother) who mysteriously disappear after Ash's funeral. I loved this book so much! It is told though three perspectives: Ash, James and Louise. Ash has anxiety and depression. He cuts himself and has no confidence in himself. He has also committed suicide twice. James is Ash's Boyfriend. He is hot, smart and plays football. Louise is Elliot's friend. Elliot has drinking problems and drug use. I loved the relationship between Ash and his brother. They were close and talked all the time. I also loved James and Ash relationship. It was a friend to lover romance. All the characters in this novel had flaws and were imperfect. The writing is amazing and lyrical. If you like, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe or Simon V.S. the Homo Sapiens Agenda You will love this book.
Thank you for Netgalley for sending me a free e book for a honest review.

*Thank you to netgalley and publisher for providing me with an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.*

I can’t say why I’m so frustrated and disappointed with this book, believe me I’ve been trying to write this review the past two weeks, I just am.

I think I feel betrayed. The blurb suggests a compelling -yet heartbreaking- mystery, while James tries to figure out what really happened to his boyfriend. We get all the heartache, two other POVs, and none of the compelling mystery.

In addition to James, the law of inertia is also told from the POV of Ash; James’s boyfriend, covering the events before his death and Louise; Elliott’s best-friend, covering the events after Ash’s death. As much as I did like Louise her POV was so pointless. She doesn’t grow at all throughout the book and it mainly covers her friendship with Elliott and her curiosity at what he’s hiding. Why didn’t Elliott himself just have a POV???

I did like the format going from past to present, that’s always been a story type I love in books. However, Ash’s POV was difficult to read. I didn’t like how toxic James and his relationship seemed. Yes they have cute moments but generally, they’re really shitty to each other. Ash seemed to have the most chapters and with no character development the book seemed to drag.

I’m not even going to discuss the twist I seen coming from 40% or ending that made me feel cheated.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this book. I wanted to care for the characters but I couldn’t, the plot was slow and the climaxed ending was... well it happened

The Law of Inertia was a solid read. The mystery behind why he was so secretive and why his past was hidden. This was a difficult read though, the topic was very close to home for me and I'm sure others would have felt the same, but if you push forward through it you get a really well written mystery for Young Adults.

#copy provided by NetGalley#

The novel starts in September 2018 when Louise comes across a YouTube video produced by James who is desperately seeking Elliot. James and Ash, Elliot’s younger brother, are lovers and the reader learns that Ash has just committed suicide. The only person who can provide some explanation of this is Elliot, but Elliot has disappeared the day Ash commits suicide and James who is unwilling to accept the suicide theory wants some explanations.

The novel oscillates between different points of view, that of Louise, Ash and James; and time periods— Louise’s sections date 2018 and those of Ash 2017. This gives the plot an interesting, varied and multi-dimensionali view. The novel deals with several important and relevant contemporary issues—suicide, self harm, drug and alcohol abuse, It is well plotted and is quite a page turner. However, the voices of the three narrators are not well defined or differentiated: the authorial voice predominates. Though Gonzales manages to hold our interest, the end is melodramatic and unconvincing.

While criticizing the novel, one should remember that the novel has been written keeping the young adult in mind, it is Gonzales’s first novel, and that she is just 25 herself. The novel shows a great deal of promise. It will be interesting to see where’s Gonzales goes from here and how her career shapes as a novelist.

I'm gonna go with a not right now. Mostly due to the writing style not gelling with me.

"LGBT Gone Girl" so um. what does that mean?? and also, why does this cover rock so much more than the original

This book. Gah. I finished it over a week ago and have struggled to write anything even close to a review. Would a couple of videos of me suffice. There could be one of me casually enjoying my read, one of my heart breaking for Ash and his suffering, there would even be a photo of me with butterflies exploding out of my heart, maybe another chewing my finger nails seemingly on edge, there could be a slomo action sequence of my heart shattering and one looking super confused. Not necessarily in that order.
I don't think it's a book that needs me to give an in-depth review on it, because 1. I can't do those and 2. going in with less information is probably a good thing.

The writing is amazing. The book deals with some very heavy topics, it's not a light-hearted read. There is mental illness, drug use, self harm, and while it doesn't delve right into issues in the foster care system, the parents in this fail spectacularly. Consider this a trigger warning, which I rarely put in a review.
The author captures the feelings of the characters so well. The way she has written Ash is phenomenal. When Ash felt joy, you were right there with him, when he felt uncertainty, fear, helplessness, you were right there with him. When he was in the shower with blood running down his legs you were watching him from just out of reach, all you want to do is hug him and love him, help him. The excitement and curiosity Ash felt when he first kissed James was contagious. His chapters were written with such depth and insight, they were easily my favourite.
We also get James perspective and a couple of others which gives us a complete picture of the events before and after Ash died. This has a great mystery element to it, with James just wanting to know what happened to his boyfriend. I read this book in two sittings because I needed to know. What happened to Ash?

All in all, this is a beautifully written story about a boy who is being crushed by the weight of existence and those that love him. I highly recommend.

A Gem!!
Amazingly good written story. Impressive, hurtful, with depth and deep deep emotions.

“Foresight never had been my forte.”

A story about Ash a boy who had a hard hard time in life. At fourteen already tried to end his life. After that his life is getting more awkward because everybody around him can’t seem to deal with that. Except his best friend James... and Ash’s older brother Elliot.
Ash and Elliot want to leave their uninterested foster parents and Elliot will take care of Ash when they have their own home. Life decides to play it different.

When he and James get more and more involved, his head and life around him is getting worse and worse.

There are deep hurtful thoughts and they felt so awful real I cried out loud.

High praise for Bea and Louise...

The story is told from more than one point of view. It goes back and forth in time.
Beautiful, written story that felt so awful real. I touched me deeply and couldn’t sleep because of it. When I finally get some sleep the first thing when I woke up was finishing this journey... of Ash, Elliot and James...

This beautiful story gave me goosebumps thick thick goosebumps all over my body.

Highly recommended!

Kindly received an arc from the publisher (through NetGalley)

4.5 stars

I really don't know how to review this book. Because even if I'll try to be very vage I can probably give too much away.

The best is to dive into the story knowing NOTHING.

It starts like ONE genre, and ends like ANOTHER.

It will break your heart and then it will heal it.

It will make you cry and then it will make you cry again, but different kind of tears.

Beautiful, emotional and...different. You can either LOVE it or HATE it.

I hope you will FEEL the same as I do.

I got an ARC of this book.

For the first 60% of this book I would have rated this book five stars without batting an eye. It was a slow burn romance with a bit of mental illness and tragic backstory thrown in, just my cup of tea. However the last bit of the book had some plot points that seemed a bit ridiculous. 

The most ridiculous point being Louise's plot line through the last chunk of the book.As always, spoilers coming. Elliot and Louise flirting immediately? Her entire plot through the book had been about a boy that she may or may not have had feelings for (her grandmother sided with me that there was something there). All of her conversations were about that one boy. She wasn't a character as much as a plot device. There was no real point for the character to exist outside of to force the ending to happen. Though the ending could  have still happened without her. So eww, I hate when female characters in particular are used solely as a plot device for the male characters to have a plot. 

However, the plot between Ash and James was pretty fantastic. I loved their chapters. I needed more. I hated the current time period chapters (and the names on the top of the chapter didn't always make sense by the end). I loved the past. I needed more. If this book was just the past it would have been a five star book. All of my issues were with the stuff in the present (outside of the twist, but that felt like a present issue as well).

The past chapters had such amazing lines that resonated with me. I have had major depressive disorder possibly my entire life. I can't remember a time when death wasn't something attractive or at least looming in my mind in some way. Ash was so easy for me to relate to. The author did a wonderful job of showing mental illness in that regard. However, the ending very much was a "people with mental illness can do whatever they want and it is fine".  Just because you have major depression, doesn't give you the right to hurt those around you or give you a free pass to do what Ash did (please understand that I am not talking suicide at this point. It will make more sense when you get to the big twist). I can understand why Ash would want to kill himself, that was never a doubt to me. It was how everyone treated the situation that got to me. Mental illness is not an excuse for shitty behavior. Just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you shouldn't be held accountable for your actions. Yeah, sometimes that can be extra rough on people, but it has to be done.

If it weren't for the twist, this book would have been a more exciting version of Looking For Alaska. If it weren't for the twist, I would have loved this book and been all over it. That ending though, woof. If you can suspend reality to an extreme for a story or if you view mental illness as an excuse, then you are good to go. If I only had to suspend reality, then I would have been ok. Having to also view mental illness as an excuse for some really shitty behavior, I couldn't do. Ash became less and less of a character I could relate to and more of one that I would avoid at all costs. Ash became so toxic that it was dangerously scary.

Trigger Warning: Anxiety, depression, suicide, graphic scenes of self-harm, child, alcohol and drug abuse.

Books about topics such as these are triggering and tricky sensitive. I love it when books like these are educating rather than damaging. And I fear that The Law of Inertia can be a bit damaging.

It was introduced in a big picture, getting the reader’s hold and full attention. The mystery was right off the bat given to us, for us to grow antsy and anticipate in the chapters to come.

The style of the story-telling was in the narration of three-point of views in past and present manner. Sounds complicate right? No, it wasn’t. I liked the technique and how effective it was in the earlier stage of the book. It was all going great, the pace, the narration, all is smooth sailing.

I was even surprised by the diversity featured here. James, a half-Filipino queer character. It’s really great. I felt seen, as a Filipino. Not only that there are other two, a Hispanic character, Louise and given the mention of Saras garment at one time she is from a different race I presume.

Ash’s character was written in such accuracies, I did suffer from anxiety too, to a fault that I would go from hanging with friends in the mall to leaving immediately. And I have no guts how to face them the next day; how should I explain myself, am I even worthy of their time?

I can relate, I feel represented in that ground.

Our character, Ash suffers from anxiety and depression, had attempted suicide and had been pursuing that high of relief, he cuts himself. His closest family was his older brother Eliot whom they live together with their foster parents. With these factors present and to top things off with the happenings in their foster home, Ash must have felt trapped helpless, he committed suicide.

But James felt something is off. Something isn’t right and his older brother Eliot have been avoiding and hiding away from him.

And that’ s the mystery that will let you grip longer with it.

However, things started to drift mid-way,

I notice no further development with Louise. She’s one of the eyes we get to see through, yet it was the middle of the book and I hadn’t learned any further character trait from her character, other than those from the introduction stage of the book. She exists, used and was disposed of later in the end as a convenience to someone?

Elliot, Saras, other characters that just exist here.

As James went on the hunt for the answers his been trying to look for, he did.

With these elements aforementioned above, those themes, all of it. I felt that it was used in a contrived manner at the expense of having a sturdy case~of build up in the plot turned into a twist?

No.

I feel bad how this one went.

FTC DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Amberjack Publishing through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3.5 Stars
**Trigger Warning: Self-harm**

This book would be good for fans of The Girl on the Train and The Women in Cabin 10 who also enjoy YA books.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it had an amazingly realistic depiction of mental illness, depression, and anxiety, and the thoughts that people with these conditions have, as well as the grief someone feels when they experience a sudden death of a loved one. On the other hand, the rest of the characters, besides Ash and James were quite one-dimensional, it was a very slow start, and the romance element was completely unnecessary.

At about a quarter in I probably would have DNF'd had this not been an ARC, but I persisted and it did get better, at about a third in it got very interesting. So don't give up too early. This book had descriptions of cutting, and this too was realistic.

Unfourantely James didn't become a 3-dimensional character until about 70% thru, which in my opinion was too late into the book, I would have liked to have seen more from his character in the before timeline. It took me till almost three-quarters of the book to see the big plot twist coming, which is great as I usually see them coming very early.

TW/CW: mental illness, suicide, drug and alcohol addiction

This was an emotional read, chocked full of the hard truths of mental illness.

"If only I could be unconscious constantly, I felt life might be bearable."

It was interesting to read different perspectives of Ash and his actions, including from Ash himself. I began guess the twist a bit before it was revealed, but I wouldn't say that took away from the story at all.

Ash was written so well as a lost boy, recovering from a suicide attempt while continuing to deal with the depression that led him on this path.

"I can't remember the last time I went for a week without thinking about dying."

His conveyed thoughts were easy to identify with as someone who also suffers from depression.

"I have to try so, so hard at every single little thing I do. I get out of bed, and I feel like I've run a marathon."

While I felt Ash was a great character, I had issues with his brother, Elliot, and the adults in his life. Elliot has his own demons, and it seemed like no one--maybe aside from Ash who was not in any position to take care of anyone, in my opinion--wanted to help him. And the adults--the foster parents and one teacher, in particular--seemed to recognize that Ash needed help but didn't act.

I also had issues with the way Ash dealt with his mental illness. Without giving too much away, I don't agree that his method was a cure-all.

In short, great mental illness rep and interesting twist, but lacking in responsible authority figures.

Can I just say: READ THIS BOOK! That said, it was an emotional roller coaster; I could not put it down, though at times I really wanted to put it down, because it was emotionally draining to read. I definitely laughed and cried at points in the book, in the end it is a great book and I full heartedly recommend it. Total trigger warning, a LOT of the book has to do with suicide and self-harm, as per the above "emotional roller coaster" but please do not let that stop you from reading, it's worth it.

Please note, I received a copy of this book from NetGalley, but that did not impact my review at all.

This book! This story! The best I've read this year. The writing is so beautiful it reminds me of the first time I read Wolfsong. It's lyrical, poetic and full of emotion.
"See, the thing is that happiness is a whore. I’ve never met a more disloyal emotion in my life. Nothing like misery, which proposes to you on the first date. Yet, like a mistress I swear off every time, all happiness has to do is peek its head around the corner, contrite and apologetic, and I give myself over to it completely. It’s transient and fleeting, and I know it won’t still be in my bed the next morning, but while I have it, it’s everything."
The plot is a character driven mystery with LGBTQ YA romance.
"If anyone could listen to my silence and hear the words I wanted to speak, it was him."
It deals with some very heavy topics like depression and anxiety, suicide, sexual identity, self-harm, drug abuse and off-page child abuse. Most of the characters are teenagers, including the MCs. All of them are so well developed that I became emotionally invested very early on in the story.
"The first two times I tried to die, I survived.
But I’ll tell you something only two people know.
When I did die, I wasn’t trying to at all."
***A huge thank you to Ms. S. Gonzales for writing this book.***

I really enjoyed this book, for the most part. The relationship in this book made me all mushy and I shipped these boys so hard. Also, in terms of dealing with bisexual representation, this is one of the best books I've ever read. As a bisexual person, the biphobia experienced in this book echoes the things I've experienced in real life. I'm so thankful that Ash's past relationship with a girl is allowed to be seen as equally important to the one he's currently in with James; also, it isn't belittled through misogyny which I usually find is the case in books that deal with bisexual male characters. Moreoever, I felt like the way this novel dealt with mental illness and suicidal ideation was very sensible and well handled, without romaticizing or glorifying it. Big thumbs up for these things!

However, and this is definitely a "your milage may vary" kind of situation which does not really reflect on the quality of the book as such; I wasn't too happy with the ending. I'd much rather this book had taken a different route but I did enjoy this book still and would/will recommend it to others.

The Quick Cut: A guy goes looking for answers about his boyfriend's suicide. The deeper he looks, the less it makes sense and cbaos ensues.

A Real Review:
Thank you to Amberjack Publishing for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Suicide, depression, and self harm are some of the most hot button topics to discuss in any book. It's not just because seeing it happen to someone you care about can ruin you, but also because the wrong words can do damage. In the wrong hands, a person in an uncomfortable headspace can be pushed into making the wrong choice. With this book, I got that seeiously uncomfortable feeling that good intentions may have unfortunately created the potential for that situation.

The book is told over the course of about two years and comes from multiple narrators. However, most of the perspective comes from Ash: James' boyfriend who ends up committing suicide. James knows something more is going on, but no one else seemingly questions his death and Ash's brother Elliot leaves town. The story starts with a video reaching a girl's eyes looking for Elliot Taylor, who is in the room with her. From there, the chaotic journey begins.

When I read the summary for this book, it intrigued me as not only a great story. This seemed like a wonderful opportunity to talk about depression and suicide in a real wag from how it affects those left behind. Unfortunately, what I ended up with instead is a slow moving tale that didn't take advantage of it's wealth of chances.

With an LGBT couple at the center, there's even more opportunity to discuss difficult topics rarely covered. Ash is depressed with anxiety and a cutting issue. James was in love with him and notified the cops when he disappeared. Instead, it's all missed and blown to hell with the way this story is written. I get it, plot is plot. However, then why add such touchy subjects? Just to add some drama? It should be more than just a characteristic and that's how it feels.

With a slow story and an inconsistent message, you're better off moving onto another book for some suspense.

i couldn't get into this at all. the plot was glacially slow and i was bored the entire way, even through the denouement, and i have no idea how i managed it instead of DNFing. the main plot twist of what happened to ash seemed very contrived, as though the author was trying to make the most original or surprising twist they could think of, at the expense of credibility.

I want to thank Amberjack Publishing and Netgalley for this partnership.

I was immediately attracted by the cover, we see James in a station.

We find James who does not agree on this story of the suicide of his boyfriend: an adopted child who has had ups and downs in his life. James is going to ask about Ash, and the only person who can answer him is Ash's big brother who's gone. The more he goes in his answers the more he will discover funny things about what happened during Ash's last day.

A moving, captivating story filled with suspense and twists. I loved the context of the story James who is trying to find out if Ash really committed suicide?

Look forward to reading another book by this author.

It is so hard to review this book without spoilers! Such great suspense and several unexpected twists! The characters are endearing and the writing is entertaining. Difficult to put down. I will read everything by this author following this!