The Beginning of Everything
“Tell me, what is it you plan to with your one wild and precious life?”
There are a few moments in this book that I can walk away with and this is one of them. Cassidy tries to get Ezra, 17 to recreate his own life into something that he can call his own. After his accident, he needs to make his own statement. Ezra feels that everyone has a personal tragedy just waiting to happen and Ezra’s car accident was the event that changed his life. Adjusting to life without sports and walking with a cane, Ezra throws his past friendships away. No longer the guy who lites up the room, nor the jr. class president or the sports team captain, he is just Ezra, the guy who almost got killed. The way he ignored his friends really irritated me. These friendships which he has had for many years, he allows them to slip between the cracks without acknowledging them because of his anger and irritation. Not wanting a pity party, he casts them out yet he stares at them from a distance, it’s as though he still longs to be a part of them. He connects with an old childhood friend and Ezra realizes that this friendship had never died, which I thought was remarkable considering how he never nurtured it. These two boys were in totally different circles before the accident and now they reconnect. As he clings to this new set of friends, I want to think that he is creating friendships but his eyes are still set on his previous friends, the group of jocks which he knows his legs will never be able to compete with again. I wish this struggle was written more clearly and developed as it would have made the story more interesting. Ezra also struggles with girls, both before and after the incident and I had issues with how he connects with them. He longs to move forward with Cassidy yet Charlotte is still in the picture which drove me insane after everything he endures with Charlotte. Cassidy herself, I couldn’t handle this girl. She’s new to the area and even in the end after the dance and the story she told Ezra, I still couldn’t stand the girl. She could have had everything yet I couldn’t understand why she chooses the life she is leading.
I really thought Ezra would have this light bulb moment where things would click and he would wake up to his own senses. There were times when the light would flick and he would get something and then, he would understand something but I don’t think he really understood it enough to do anything. I was disappointed in this one.
