Review of "The Places I've Cried in Public" on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
he Places I've Cried in Public chronicles the highs and lows of an unhealthy teenage relationship. It never fools you into thinking it's going to be a romance, the current timeline narrative clearly lets you know it went sour. That narrative is second person, directly addressing Reese.
When her dad is made redundant, their family is uprooted from Sheffield to the South of England, meaning Amelie leaves her friends, and boyfriend behind. She and Alfie have an agreement, they'll meet again at university but in the meantime, they are free to live their lives apart. But this story isn't about Alfie, the boy who is there as an example of a healthy relationship.
Amelie is just starting to make friends when the whirlwind that is Reese enters her life. Alfie appears to be distancing himself from her, and Reese says and does all the right things. He makes her feel …
he Places I've Cried in Public chronicles the highs and lows of an unhealthy teenage relationship. It never fools you into thinking it's going to be a romance, the current timeline narrative clearly lets you know it went sour. That narrative is second person, directly addressing Reese.
When her dad is made redundant, their family is uprooted from Sheffield to the South of England, meaning Amelie leaves her friends, and boyfriend behind. She and Alfie have an agreement, they'll meet again at university but in the meantime, they are free to live their lives apart. But this story isn't about Alfie, the boy who is there as an example of a healthy relationship.
Amelie is just starting to make friends when the whirlwind that is Reese enters her life. Alfie appears to be distancing himself from her, and Reese says and does all the right things. He makes her feel intoxicated, not like the steady love she had before. She ignores the warnings of her new friends, and jumps in head first into a new relationship.
What happens between them is told through flashbacks, connected to all the places she cried in public, mostly because of him. It shows how an abusive relationship doesn't need to involve black eyes and broken bones, it can be emotional and insidious. She finds herself changing herself to please him, to stop him getting angry with her. Like many young women, she is manipulated into things she really doesn't want to do, just because he says it's what everyone does. Doesn't she want to make him happy?
It's pretty upsetting in places. Holly Bourne does have the knack of hitting the nail on the head when it comes to the harsh realities of being a teenage girl in the here and now. This is so far from the fluffy romance that a lot of people think YA is.