The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry

Reviewed by Ginny!

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Synopsis:

Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. 

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start… until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

Synopsis copied from Goodreads

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What I drank prior: ShockTop. Gotta love a beer.

Spoiler-free Overview: this book had a very fun idea of the space time continuum. Natalie starts seeing a guy she’s never seen before in her small-kentucky town. She’s half native American and was adopted by a white couple but had a mysterious entity appear to tell her stories from different cultures. At some point it becomes clear that the mutliverse is causing her and Beau to jump universes.

Spoiler-free Thoughts:

Characters: so I really enjoyed a lot of the characters. Natalie fits the high school generic believing youre different and dont fit it. Beau was a bit of the loner with a heart of hold, the best friend was lovely (I always like seeing a friendship that is on the ubcomplicated side of things – im not a big fan of the conniving back-stabbing best friends) and the therapist lady was kind of awesome. The characters were distinct and very well built to complement and pppose each other.

Plot: Man, this is a plot I shoild have loved and did for so much of the book. And then… but we arent there yet. The plot was a bit of a mystery, there universe travels but that doesnt explain everything. Natalie is dealing with an ex who isnt ready to be an ex and leaving for college while also dealing with falling in love with someone who doesnt belong in your universe.

Writing Style: i really did like the writing style. There was this beautiful juxtaposition between the main plot and the stories that Natalie had been told.
World Building: this was pretty much set in the real world but things were built well enoigh that the changes between the world made sense.

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************Spoilers************

I HATED the ending. Im sorry but it just hurt. I can’t want to believe that someone who has lived a full life would tell their yoinger self they must be sacrificed to save the boy they met 3 months prior. “Youll never feel another love like this” is such bullshit. So future Natalie (i.e. Grandmother) didnt have another great love, that doesnt mean main character Natalie doesnt have yhat chance. And then yoing Natalie being 17 fucking steps in front of a car crash to try to bring the worlds togetjer. I literally cant care about the rest of the book which I haf really enjoyed because yhe ending was so fucked up
END SPOILERS

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What to pair it with: so i historically make bad cocktails. I tey to make things taste good and they just never taste right. This is one of those. Lets call it a really fucked mai tai.

Rating: 1.8 out of 5