REVIEW! Saving June.

SAVING JUNE by Hannah Harrington

Everyone's sorry. But no one can explain why.

Harper Scott's older sister, June, took her own life a week before high school graduation, leaving Harper devastated. So when her divorcing parents decide to split up June's ashes, Harper steals the urn and takes off cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going—California.

Enter Jake Tolan, a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession…and an unknown connection to June. When he insists on joining them, Harper's just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanor and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what Harper needs. Except Jake's keeping a secret that has the power to turn her life upside down—again.

My rating: 3 stars.

MY THOUGHTS:

I had high hopes for Saving June, but it ultimately let me down.  The writing is swell, as well as the characters.  But here's the thing: they could've been anyone, and the story would've been the same.  The thing I just couldn't get past in this book is that every moment of it feels like one I've read before.  Nothing seems outright original, or exciting.  In other words, nothing captured my attention.

And I couldn't get past Harper, Laney and Jake's ages.  Throughout the entire story they seemed much more mature than their given ages: 16, 17 and 18.  And when it was made known that they were so young, the believability of the plot plummeted.  Everything suddenly seemed too convenient to make up for their youth.  This immediately distanced me from the characters and story.

Granted, the story has quite a bit of humor that presents itself at the randomest of times.  That definitely keeps it from being drop dead dull.  But other than that, every bit is just as predictable as you think it is.  There are no surprises.  Had there been an unforseen aspect, I think I'd consider the pacing spot-on, perfect.  But since it lacks any such thing, it moves a bit too slow for my liking.

In all honesty I think this one of those books that people will either be into, or not into.  In my opinion, there's a lot of "grey area" that readers either won't mind, or will.  In this case, I minded the grey areas.  Too-young characters (for the situations at hand) and too little setting it apart from other novels ultimately makes Saving June an unmemorable read for me.