The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is a beautiful young adult love story, and my first book by this author. I love this book! Evie Perez is taken away from her home, friends, and most importantly her grandmother to go with her dad to Iceland for the summer. Evie is a painter, who starts painting people she has never seen before. The next day she meets the young man she painted, Oskar. Oskar stutters, so he pretends he does not understand her. There is so much going on in this book, I don't know where to begin, take my advice and just read it. I strongly recommend this wonderful book. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I am never going to read Jen Marie Hawkins again. I never enjoy this book which is the important thing when reading for fun and entertainment, but that's not the reason. No, I'm never gonna read Jen Marie Hawkins again because in the acknowledgements she thanks her husband by saying he's "The Joker to her Harley" which tells me she does not understand relationships. I know tons of people somehow miss that Joker and Harley are an abusive relationship, but seriously you need help if that's your ideal. The darker interpretation is that she outing her husbands in the acknowledgement. I don't normally review what authors say in their acknowledgements unless to see if they had information given by their knowledge on the subject the book deals with. Like if they used sensitive readers which Hawkins did.

This is another book with a weird stereotypic Scottish character who has red hair and uses Lad and Lass as though she is 180 years old. It's not that she uses lad or lass instead of boy or girl. No, it's that she says it at nasal as though you might forget that she a walking stereotype. Every other sentence, at times. The Catholic main character asks the Scottish character who named Agnes by the way, another reason why I think she 180 if she is Catholic. I get American wouldn't know how bad that is to do, but it's just a terrible thing to ask someone in general. This a book that wants to be about religion, but goes in no

I almost DNF the book when she appeared, even before I knew she had red hair because I knew by the way she was described I wasn't going to enjoy this nonsense. However, I thought that was kinda silly to be my last straw. They were other things in the book that I wasn't enjoying but this book had revealed itself to have one of my pet projects. This is a proof so I'm not meant to quote from it, so let's call this paraphrasing. Ages is called pushy like most Scots. What? Frankly, that's a new one and blatantly American thing to say. Like it's Heritage has the most to do with nature, rather than culture which varies town to town.

This a contemporary with magic cherry trees. It has the usual tropes, including the one I dedicate too much time, it seems, to discussing.

That's right a Silent Protagonist, okay, I don't expect everyone who reads this review to know what that is. Basically, a Silent Protagonist is the main character who for some reason does not speak for the majority of the novel. Sometimes this because they have a medical disorder where they are mute or have a mental disorder such as Selective Mutism but most of the time they're just doing it for kicks. So I have Selective Mutism so I'm interested whenever I see this in media, and since it's relevant, I also have a speech impediment and a slight stutter. Actually, a lot of kids do develop anxiety around talking due to speech impediments (not me, I just don't know how people work) so this interesting in its realistic but it's a 17-year-old boy that's decided not to talk to a single person because he dislikes her and then he fancies her. I've seen worse ways of doing it and he is my first boy. It goes on too long and Evie really should have figured out that he understood English, even if he didn't speak it. It never discussed properly why he did it.

The way language is used in this book is very performative and doesn't feel natural at all. Random mixing in Icelandic words into English sentences for no reason and the same with Spanish ones in a way that does not flow naturally. I'm not someone who has two first languages. I have Scots and figuring out what of those words don't exist in English, which is another reason why Agnes play as stereotype more than a general. I have been learning Gaelic so I can tell you that Welsh and Gaelic are not the same thing. I could have you that before, but now I know more of the differences. I could get Confusing Irish and Scottish Gaelic since they have similarities but besides being both Celtic languages they not that similar.

English is a useful language to have, but it has no sentimental value because its not our language. It's not Scots or Gaelic, its something that was forced on to us. I probably speak English to my kids if I lived in a foreign country because it's my first language and English is a useful language to know. No idea why his dad thought it was important they know both through, like its a thing. It made it seem like it was a sentimental thing for him when they living in Iceland and he was the Icelandic parent.

I think the biggest problem is that I don't like the main characters. I feel sorry for them sometimes but they haven't presented themselves as real people. This book is told in the third person closely following Evie and an obvious fake journal by Oskar, who writes in verse. Him writing in verse does nothing for me and often is not poetic at all. I'm not expert on poetry and I didn't read any of his poems out loud, so I don't have the tools to judge fully, however, I do have a Higher in English and learnt different forms of poems and I do like the style of poetry its meant to be but it doesn't feel like poetry, just random space lining which this book had a lot.

This isn't the novel's fault but the e-arc I received was badly formatted. Sometimes I could not read Evie's parts because the lines went off the page into the text into the next page. The Kindle version was fine, but that meant I had to keep switching formats from the preferred method of reading e-arcs. So in terms of fair reviewing, that probably lessen my enjoyment of this book but it didn't have much to take from.

Overall, I give this book 2/5 stars for Rotten Cherries. I know I obsessed over the Scottish stereotype thing but hey I'm Scottish and it was annoyingly distracting any time the character appeared. Nevermind, that Oskar was meant to be half Scottish, he was written very American. It's hard to get anything perfect if you don't belong to that culture, but they was literally no reason she was Scottish anyway. She could have just been English and it would have been the same thing. Druid is not a Scottish thing in our Culture, sure Paganish and witches but so is the rest of Great Britain.

Most importantly I didn't like the characters and they were the story.

On a serious note, I'm sort of joking about never reading again because of the Harley thing, Hawkins is a decent writer but this book does just a lot of things wrong for me. I would be interested to see more Own Voice reviews of this book about the elements that I can't speak on. This book just doesn't leave me excited to read anymore but never say never. This a debut.

Wow, this book gave me all the feels! Going in, I didn’t expect it to be so deep and heartfelt, so thought provoking. Not to mention, having a hint of magic so cleverly woven into the plot points. That title makes so much sense now, but I don’t want to say more or else I’ll give it away!
Sixteen year old artist Evie is angry with her father for upending her life. By moving them to Iceland for the summer, she’s cut off from all her friends, thanks to shitty wifi, and her beloved grandmother who raised her and is now in an assisted living facility back in Miami. Evie finds comfort in a picturesque cherry orchard behind her guesthouse and after snacking on a few cherries from an old tree, starts painting a portrait of a handsome boy she’s never meet. Then something magical happens: she meets the boy she painted. Oskar isn’t happy to find Evie trespassing and snacking on the cherries from his tree. But his strong stutter stops from his voicing his thoughts, though he make his feelings clear. Evie assumes he cannot speak English and he lets her. But as they continue running into each other at the cherry orchard, Evie begins sharing her thoughts and feelings about her life, thinking he doesn’t understand, he feels trapped by his lie. And her paintings, they capture moments of a time and people he had long lost. How did she know about them?
I won’t lie, Evie did annoy me at the very start. She was bitter and angry towards her father, who she chose to live with over her mother. But as I read on, I began to understand where she was coming from: She was lonely. Her friends back home were moving on without her, her grandmother’s mental health was deteriorating, her mother had bailed on her, and her father was constantly busy with work to spend time with her. But as she formed relationships with Agnes and Oskar, we got to see her open up, be more daring and cheerful. Her freely flirting with Oskar thinking he didn’t understand her was as shocking and amusing to us, the readers, as it was to him. So much that I was okay with the lack of banter. I liked how being with Agnes reminded her of the home she left behind in Miami with her grandmother. I especially loved how deeply she loved and cared for her grandmother, despite the distance between them.
Oskar’s POV is written as a journal entries, in a verse format which I found so clever as the only time he’s able to speak without a stutter is when he’s singing. He’s tired of people looking at him in pity because of it and seeing Evie look at him differently, he was afraid to change that. A decision he comes to regret as their feelings for each other deepen over the summer. I really felt for him, not only does he struggles coming clean to Evie, he struggles coming to terms with what happened to his family five years ago and Evie’s painting don’t help. I loved seeing his mother/son bond with his aunt Agnes, the only surviving close family he has left. We can really see how much she cares and worries for him throughout the story, how she wants the best for him.
The main theme of this novel is forgiveness and moving on. The author, Jen Marie Hawkins portrayed that beautifully, surreally through Oskar and Evie with their respective storylines.
And their romance! It was a slowburn, enemies to lovers done extremely well. I did not want to put the book down, needing to know how it would all unfold. I was that hooked. And the story does satisfy! I felt their pain, their anger, and also their comfort and their deep understanding in one another. Their love was truly beautiful and I was rooting for their happy ever after.
Thank you so much Owl Hollow Press and Jen Marie Hawkins for giving me a chance to read this!

Please note: I received an advance digital copy of this book through NetGalley from Owl Hollow Press in exchange for a honest review. This does not influence my opinions in any way.

I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley for my honest review.


“Translation was unnecessary when meaning was written in everything else.”

Synopsis:

When Evie Perez is cut off from everything she loves and forced to move to Iceland for the summer, she takes her canvas and paintbrushes into the picturesque cherry orchard behind her guesthouse. She stains her lips with stolen cherries in the midnight sun and paints a boy she’s never met.
Oskar is startled to discover Evie in his family’s orchard, and even more surprised to see himself on her canvas. Too ashamed to reveal his stutter, he remains silent as Evie returns day after day to paint, spilling confessions she wouldn’t even tell her priest.
As Evie’s life back home unravels, Oskar wants to comfort her with words, but he knows he’s waited too long, so he uses music instead. But when it all comes to the surface, he knows that if Evie can’t forgive him for lying, he may never forgive himself for surviving.


“The Language of Cherries” is unlike anything I’ve ever read. I had no clue I would love it this much. It is YA contemporary with a touch of magic.


This book touches on things like family, grief, love and the power of forgiveness. It was heartbreaking yet beautiful.
I loved all the characters, the writing style and the Icelandic setting. I flew through this in a couple of hours because I couldn’t put it down.

I look forward to more books by this author.

The Language of Cherries | Jen Marie Hawkins

This book really surprised me. Before starting it, I wasn't really convinced that it was my cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it!

I had to get used to the writing style a bit as it wasn't my favorite, but after like 100 pages it really got more interesting and the characters developed.

Both MCs (it's written from two POVs) are a bit slow and naive sometimes, but overall solid characters. I really liked the personality of Oskars aunt.
And one thing I really looked forward to while reading was the fact that through the whole book there where little bits and bobs of scottish, icelandic and spanish, which was so fun.

It also got a little bit mystical, what I found really refreshing and interesting because I didn't expect it to play a role and it really became one of my favorite parts about the book.

I quite liked how the characters were (despite of having creative talents in which they were both really good) not perfect in every way, as it is often the case in YA books. This was a little bit different and I loved it.

Overall it was really cute sometimes maybe a bit slow, but I liked how the author dealt with topics like grief and anxiety as well as relationships in any way.

I enjoyed the book and would recommend to read it.😊

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐,5

Coming of Age with bonus slow burn romance and miscommunication problems

Evie doesn't want to spend the summer with her father in Iceland. She would rather be in Florida with her best friend, her almost-boyfriend, and her beloved abuela. Instead, she's up where the sun won't stop shining, her estranged mom won't stop calling, and the wi-fi keeps cutting out. Bored and alone, she finds painting inspiration in the cherry orchard over the hill. She also finds Oskar.

Oskar is too embarrassed by his stutter to talk to Evie, so he lets her believe he doesn't speak English. Still grieving the loss of his family and hiding from the world, he intially resents her intrusion into his family's legacy. Then, as Evie responds to his feigned ignorance by pouring out her heart, he begins to look forward to their one-sided interactions.

I can't say that I approved of Oskar's deception, but I could understand why it happened and how it grew into a larger problem as feelings got involved. What kept me reading was how the author captured the uncertainties of late teenagerhood, as Evie and Oskar had to make decisions on their futures, balancing past hurts with family obligations, and understanding the world isn't as black and white as childhood would have you believe.

I also liked how the narration switched from Evie to Oskar on a chapter by chapter basis, with very different writing styles used to differentiate their voices.

For an intricate, interesting, and sometimes painfully accurate look at growing up, four stars.

What a wonderful and magical experience!!!! The Language of Cherries is a story that will make you feel everything in a very powerful way, a story that will make you feel alive and even wants to start paying attention more and more to those details we usually don't stop to look around.

The Language of Cherries is the story of Evie a teenage girl who was feeling very lost in her life. she felt alone, her parents were very consumed with life problems and egoisms that she really didn't understand making her feel even more like she didn't belong, she only felt safe with her Abuela the only person in this world who truly saw her from who she was.. until life happened and everything she ever knew started to change, making her finally see and feel for the first time.

Oskar lost so much when he was just a boy, he feels like nothing is going to be the same, and lives his life secluded from the world just keeping himself busy with house chores to forget. but everything happened for a reason and life is about to show him all the magic he has been missing.

Oskar and Evie's story allows us to live and grow with the characters as the story continues to evolve, the secondary characters are amazing as well giving so much depth to the main characters. I really love Agnes, she was always a beacon of light between Oskar and Evie..

I really don't have enough words how much I loved this book, it is hard to translate my feelings but is a story that gives you so much hope, that makes you believe in second chances, in magic and that there's still good people in this world.

Overall it was a magnificent story I'm looking forward to spreading the love of this book and read more books by Jen Marie, Thank you for the magic.

A nice read very slow to start however, but once you get past that it’s an easy and enjoyable read. It’s beautifully written, almost lyrical in nature and that made it so much more enjoyable to me, it’s a lovely read and a good debut , I look forward to seeing and reading more in the future

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

An ARC of this novel was sent to me by NetGalley for reviewing purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I tried to like this book, but I found it to be very slow for a big portion of the book. Other than that, I find the characters to be extremely well developed and I had a fun time reading this book. I will be reading more of Hawkins' work because I am a fan of the writing style.

I went into this pretty sceptical because I'm not the biggest fan of the cover an the covers are what usually bring me in (I know I know I'm working on it!). But this was amazing!!! So good! Te format was so great, I loved that Oskars chapters were written in a poetry like structure! The subtle magical realism was so well done and felt so real! This book took a completely different direction than I was expecting! Actually making me emotional at times! I'm very excited to see what else this author writes :)

This YA contemporary made my creative heart so very happy. I can pretty much guarantee it being enjoyable and easy to read for anyone who enjoys the genre. Open your heart and your mind and get ready to be visually and emotionally stimulated.

The Language of Cherries was a quick, easy read for me. At only 260 pages I polished it off in a few hours one afternoon.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a YA contemporary romance. What sets it apart is the inclusion of magical realism elements, which were a nice touch and helped move the story along.

Chapters alternated between third person, following Evie’s perspective; and first person diary entries from Oskar’s point of view.

I thought that The Language of Cherries was well written, and I enjoyed reading about Oskar and Evie’s relationship as it developed.

Both characters are extremely creative individuals, and both have their share of problems. Oskar has a stutter, which causes him a lot of anxiety. But he’s also dealing with grief. The two combined have caused him to isolate himself from basically everyone around him. Meanwhile, Evie is dealing with family problems, and the declining state of her grandmother’s mental acuity due to dementia. In addition, she has been physically isolated by the move to Iceland.

I liked how there was a balance between the romantic elements and the exploration of the characters’ lives in general. I thought the themes of grief and isolation were handled really well, and I appreciated that both characters are experiencing those things for very different reasons.

Overall, I’d recommend this book to fans of YA contemporary/ romances.

When you are reading a book and realize you a reading something special, something profound, something that gives you literal goosebumps, something you never want to end you are in book lover heaven. The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is that book.

This YA is one of the most poignant lyrical, mystical magical books I have ever read. The story of Evie Perez, an aspiring painter, who at 17 is forced to spend her summer in Iceland away from family and friends. She is lonely and miserable then she discovers the cherry orchard and her life will never be the same.

Oskar has always lived on the grounds of the cherry orchard but he is weighed down by unspeakable grief and does not enjoy its beauty, in fact, he resents it. Then he sees Evie painting and eating his cherries and his life will never be the same.

Told in alternating POV between Evie and Oskar we are able to fully understand their pain, their anguish, their loneliness, and their mystical connection. Oskar misleads Evie when they meet but only because she truly leaves him speechless. Evie opens up to him assuming he can't speak English and she is safe confessing all of her emotions.

When she starts to paint pictures of the orchard with people she has never seen but who Oskar knows intimately they come to realize there is something more than just a chance meeting across the world between a boy and a girl.

When we read Oskar's side of the story we are given the gift of his lyrical poetic prose that is so beautiful it left me in tears. When Evie expresses her self doubts and insecurities it is written with such honesty that I kept wiping the tears away.

I delayed finishing this book because I did not want it to end. I was scared the ending would leave me empty but when I got to the last word I smiled through the tears. The author has given readers a true literary gift!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and Owl Hollow Press and the author for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was not what I expected. I was expecting a magical romance, but what I got was just kind of bland. I considered not finishing, but I stuck it out.

I found the plot to move very slow. I’m a fan of a slow burn, but it was 10% and I wasn’t into it, then 20% then 30%. Finally it started to pick up around 40%, but even then, it felt like hiking through mud.

Evie was immediately unlikeable. She was a bratty, stereotypical teen and I just don’t like to read stories lie that. Oksar’s stutter seemed gimmicky. His weird pseudo-poetry chapters really were really disruptive to the flow of the story.

I also experienced formatting issues with the digital file, and that made the experience even more unenjoyable.

Thank you to Owl Hollow Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

5 "All the Cherries" Stars

I had no idea I would fall in love with this book quite so much. The Language of Cherries definitely stole my heart and I couldn't be happier. First of all, it is set in Iceland - which in itself thrilled me. I don't know that I've read anything set there before. Secondly, it had an air of mysticism without being a full out paranormal story...I also ate that up like it was candy. There was a very wounded hero, Oskar, who was much beloved by his aunt (she happened to be from Scotland) - - bonus points!! Evie, our heroine, is fighting her own battles but she will grow up and find her strength during this story. Lastly, there are cherries....and a farmer's market...and I could go on...

Seriously, this book is lyrical and poetic. It blends the past and present beautifully - - in a way that helps you understand the characters' feelings and emotions. Oskar has dealt with an extreme trauma and is having difficulty moving forward. He doesn't talk to Evie through much of the book. Yet they fall deeply in love. Evie uses her ability to paint to escape. She is in Iceland with her father but it's temporary. When she returns home, she will have to move from her old home in Florida and leave behind her school, friends and her grandmother (who she is extremely close to). Evie is working through the bitterness she has for her parents for making her leave everything she loves behind. I'm not even sure how the author does it but the way she leads these two characters to find one another is quite perfect. They don't make sense together. Yet, once they are together, they don't make sense apart. I apologize for all of my ramblings but I simply adore this book. The words written inside are truly beautiful and spoke to my soul....

"Maybe some people were meant to come into your life, but maybe they weren’t meant to stay."

Thank you to NetGalley, Owl Hollow Press and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

When Evie's father takes her away for the summer for his work, Evie struggles to adjust to life in Iceland. Away from her friends and boyfriend, and away from her beloved Abuela.

The Language of Cherries is one of those stories that hooks you in from the beginning. Its chapters alternate from Evie to Oskar's Journal and over the course of the summer Evie and Oskar fall in love. While Evie shares her story with Oskar, thinking he can't understand her, Oskar deals with grief and is keeping his stutter hidden from her.

The Language of Cherries is beautifully written. I actually read this in one sitting, which doesn't happen to me that often. I loved the connection between the characters, and how they evolved as we get to know them. Wonderful book by Jen Marie Hawkins, can't wait to read more from her.

“She knew his songs before he ever sang them. Knew his pain and his passion without him ever putting them into words.“

This is a gentle YA contemporary romance that sneaks up on you and stays with you. Evie is a girl who is worried about her friends and love interest forgetting all about her while she goes away for the summer, and is worried about her Abuela, while also dealing with the push and pull relationship with her parents. She slowly but reluctantly falls in love with Iceland (and its cherry orchards!) as she gets inspired to draw a boy she’s never met, a boy who cannot speak to her but communicates in ways more profound than words.

The miscommunication trope runs rampant here, and though it may be frustrating for some readers, the book asks as you go along on a journey told by both prose and verse where Evie and Oskar reveal their true selves to each other and to themselves through cherry picking, art and music. Oskar is confronted with the fact that he has to get over his fear to communicate in order to move on with his life and find love and peace. Elements of fabulism are weaved into the story as Evie is able to find the truth in her art with a little magic to help her (and Oskar) along the way.

The book depicts what it is like for a granddaughter to deal with her aging and ailing grandmother and how the whole family deals with it. There were times I wanted to say that Evie was behaving like a child in the way she treated her father because of how he handled his mother’s health but knowing and having seen that pain and denial up close, I could understand her. But I have also seen my father having to go through that pain and there were some unfinished conversations there to be had. There are hurts there which have yet to be healed. We also get to see how a child deals with the hurt caused by her mother’s depression and the possible beginning of a road to forgiveness. Though again because it is through Evie’s eyes, we are meant to infer that her mother is callous and selfish and we can only guess at the healing and understanding points both must come to.

The writing was beautiful, lyrical and magical and a stand out in the YA contemporary genre. Give this book of art, music and language a chance.

DNF at 30%.

I would still give this three stars because I didn't stop because it was bad necessarily, it just wasn't for me. Contemporary usually isn't my thing, but I've read a few lately that I surprised myself by liking a lot and this sounded cute so I thought I'd give it a shot and unfortunately this one didn't work out. The writing style is very much what you'd expect from a book called The Language of Cherries, and it made it difficult for me to concentrate on what was going on. Also, Oskar's POV is entirely his journal entries, all of which are poems, which I wasn't a huge fan of.

But if those things don't bother you, you might enjoy it much more than I did.

A beautiful cover for a beautiful book. The Language of Cherries by Jen Marie Hawkins is a story of loss, love, family and survival. Magical realism is a genre I struggle with, but I actually really enjoyed this , and I loved how the magical elements were worked into the story.which is a dual narrative from the perspectives of the two main characters, Evie and Oskar.
Evie has recently moved to Iceland with her father for the summer and is really struggling. She misses her boyfriend and her friends, and most of all she misses her Abuela , who is starting to show signs of dementia and has been moved into an assisted living facility. She is angry with her father , lonely and uninspired. Despite loving to paint and hoping to go to an art school, she can't bring herself to pick up her brushes despite her dad's attempts at encouraging her. When she finds a thriving cherry orchard in the middle of the sparse icelandic countryside she is puzzled and strangely inspired, and she starts to paint again, but the images she produces make no sense to her.
Oskar lives with his aunt, who runs the local shop, and they own the cherry orchard which has captivated Evie. His life has been difficult, and he keeps mostly to himself. When he sees Evie in the orchard, he is tongue tied, and embarrassed by his stutter, so he does not speak, causing her to assume that he doesn't speak English. As the two start to make friends, prodded by his aunt and her father, she sees him as a safe confidant and tells him things she would never have if she knew he could understand her words. He is trapped by his lie so writes his feelings, in the form of snippets of poetry and journal entries. As the book unfolds we learn more about the magic that keeps the orchard thriving in the harsh climate, and how it causes Evie to paint things she could not possibly know about.
This book is a slow, gentle and lyrical read, and while it may not be for everyone, if you invest the time, you will find yourself really rooting for these characters, who have really come to life on the page. The dynamics between Oskar and his Aunt, and Evie and her dad were good, though I struggled to believe that Oskar's aunt would have helped him to keep his secret for so long., and I think the fact that he did is probably the biggest problem I had with the book overall. The alternating narratives worked well , particularly since they were so different stylistically. As I said at the outset, magical realism is a genre that I struggle with, but here they use a druidic style magic which works incredibly well.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

3.5/5 stars

This is the first book I review in a while and I'm glad to say it is a good one.

While there were some things that ticked me off, I must say that the premise and pace of the story were great. I did not feel that it was slow and it kept me entertained throughout the book, never feeling like it was dragging. The one thing I didn't like about the writing were the chapters written in verse as I didn't really feel like there was any rhythm to them and they became tiresome by the time I reached the 50% mark.

The instalove was kind of a letdown but I feel that the development the relationship went through was enjoyable. I enjoyed the fact that they could deepen their relationship without having a two-way conversation, it does give the sense that they were able to connect with more than words. Even though I still don't approve of Oskar's lie and the way he betrayed Evie's trust.

While I believe that most characters were pretty realistic and relatable, the main character seemed very immature and most of the time I thought of her as a 15-year-old, instead of 17. Also, some of Oskar's thoughts made me cringe and uncomfortable as they seemed out of place for the moment.