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Sunday 16 March 2014

Safe With Me by Amy Hatvany

Safe with MeRATING: 5/5

Wow. How do I even begin? This book was exactly what I wanted and then some. I’d never heard of this book before visiting Costco with my mom yesterday. You have no idea how happy I am that I went with her after finishing this book.

How do I describe the difficulties of Olivia’s life? When she first met James he was charming, kind, funny; absolutely everything you would want from a man. So when he proposed to her, how could Olivia say no? But not long after moving in with him, he would say things that made small bells go off in her head. But her sweet, charming James couldn’t have possibly meant it in that way, right? He must have just had a rough day at work

. A year later, Olivia and James have their beautiful daughter Madelyn and nothing could be better. Fast-forward a couple more years and James has taken his slight jabs too far. Far enough that Olivia decides she needs to take Maddie and run far, far away. But then the unspeakable happens. Maddie gets sick with a liver disease and Olivia knows she can’t afford the treatments on her own. How can she leave James now?

A couple years later, Hannah’s daughter Emily has been hit by a car. After being rushed to the hospital and hours of surgery have gone by, Emily is alive… but only because of the life support the hospital’s machines are providing for her. The doctor asks Hannah if her daughter was an organ donor. There’s a 15 year old girl in dire need of a liver transplant and time is of the essence. 

Knowing this is what Emily would want, Hannah donates everything that’s left of her daughter in order to save the lives of many others, one of them being Maddie.

A year later, Hannah and Olivia meet by coincidence and become very close very fast. This is a story of family, friendship and courage. So much courage.

I loved this book so much more than I ever expected to. I cared for these characters more than I ever expected to. I don’t think I’ve ever cared for any fictional character as much as I cared for Hannah, Maddie and Olivia.

Watching these three girls go through their own forms of grief and struggle was so incredibly moving. All three of their stories demanded to be heard through Hatvany’s writing style. It was very simple and yet very elegant, and I think that is why it worked so well.

Nothing about this book was black and white. Everything was a millions shades of gray. The pacing was beautiful, the situation was so believe and so heart breaking on all accounts that I found myself tearing up on multiple occasions.

There is not a single flaw that I am able to identify in this book. There is not a single person that I would not recommend this book to. There is not a page that I didn’t love within this book.

Please, just read this book. It is definitely the kind of book that leaves its mark on you.

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