The Places I've Cried in Public (A BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick): 1

Product Information

When I am rating this book - it is entirely based on how I felt about it. I don't want to talk about the characters or the writing. And this line - just hit me so hard. Trigger warnings in this book for discussion and depictions of emotional and sexual abuse by a boyfriend. This book really needs plugging into the teenage mental health system to teach young adults about choices and consequences, poisonous power play and abusive relationships. Something I also really appreciated in this story, was how therapy is shown in a positive light. How Amelie figures out, by herself and, as she starts therapy, with conversations with her therapist, the issues in her previous relationship and slowly goes down that recovery road.

Look, if you’re coming to this book for suspense or surprise, you will not find it. The plot is utterly predictable, even without Amelie’s very overt foreshadowing mentioning red flags and the end of friendships, etc. That’s the point: Bourne is preparing us for the emotional journey ahead by giving us the framework of the narrative journey. This isn’t about trying to figure out what will happen, how it will end, etc. It’s a story about Amelie coming to terms with this huge thing that happened to her. Amelie's journey to understanding what happened in her relationship with Reese is not an easy one, but it's a journey of discovery and acceptance of herself that she desperately needed after what she went through. I was glad she had people who helped her along the way.Nothing that incriminating, of course. Nothing that couldn't be shushed away with a "you're too sensitive/needy/clingy/crazy". But damaging, nonetheless. lastly, i just need to mention the writing. if i'll ever write a book i want to be able to write like that, so effortlessly, seamlessly, intimately and beautifully. There are lots of places where it can easily be tempting to have a good blub in public, but not all of us will give in to the urge, let alone talk about it afterwards. I’m starting to realize that craziness may not always come from within. I’m starting to think lows aren’t worth the highs - not in love. Not in something where the most important thing is to feel safe. Consistency is underrated.”

This story was a lot. A lot to handle, a lot to process and a lot to take in. It's about our main character who is reliving a relationship she initially believed to be amazing. She was convinced that the guy she met was it for her, based on the emotions she would experience when she was around him. Something that I feel I took away from this, is the power of friendship, Amelie had so many bad things happen and the friendships that came from this, was such light in a dark book. Crying is a very obvious sign that something isn't going right in your life. You should not ignore tears." 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.

Published

I can take my journey and my scars and I can use the lessons they gave me to ensure my future path has fewer tears in it. There’s a trail of salt across the country, from the tears that rolled down my cheeks, but it ends here. A school project gives Amelie the idea. She’ll create a memory map of all the places he made her cry. But that is also when she meets Resse who is mister-charisma-spills-from-me, I'm-a-human-attracting-magnet. basically-the-everyday-fantasy-YA-love interest (yeah, tall, brooding, is in love with you from day 1 !!!!instant connection!!!! keeps staring at your face and keeps reminding you that it's in a romantic not creepy way.) Amelie tells the story about her relationship with her ex-boyfriend Reese who she met at school shortly after she and her parents moved to another part of England. The story is told from two different points in time, so she is basically telling the story of how she met Reese, fell in love and missed all the red flags until it was too late while reflecting on them, retracing and understanding what and why everything went wrong. You've probably guessed this already, but it's not a romance. This is a book about that insidious form of emotional abuse that grows, slowly, out of a relationship you thought was wonderful. Very few authors manage to portray this right, I think. Very few successfully show how someone can fall in love with a person who is manipulating and hurting them. Bourne does, though, and it makes for an emotional and skin-crawling read.

The only reason this isn’t a whooping 5-stars is because this was still quite a difficult read at times, because of the themes of the story. Still 200% recommending this, if you can handle the trigger warnings. The “it” that I’m working through now. The messy line of biro. The dots on a map where you made me cry – I’m sure it’s all my fault somehow. If only I’d done things differently. Been… less me, then I wouldn’t have driven you away. The Chapter names- They are all based on the names of the places or the reasons why she cried and absolutely no idea why, but I loved them.

Publisher

The thing with this book is, I found it very very difficult to stop reading, I couldn't tell you the last time I read a full book in a day but this was one of them. I took a lot away from this book and some things that were wrote I agreed with (obviously it is very precise to the book) The Places I’ve Cried in Public tells the story of Amelie’s less than perfect relationship with Reese, her smooth-talking inconsistent boyfriend who builds her up and then deconstructs her into a thousand pieces leaving her feeling needy, desperate and odd. At first, I didn’t really warm up with Amelie. I didn’t like how hard she was on herself, how naive she sometimes behaved. Especially because Reese was so unlikable from the beginning on. He was very possessive, mean and just had an overall bad personality. I mean it’s obvious that the author wanted us to hate him but I just don’t understand how Amelie was able to like him in the beginning. I mean there must have been something about him that she saw but we, as readers, didn’t and I wish that the author would have made these character traits more visible, more understandable.