By: Victoria Stevens
Philadelphia, PA (The Hollywood Times) 05/06/2020 – Do you remember your first year of college and the different challenges you had to face? Maybe you were moving onto campus, sharing a room with another stranger, trying to decide what major you wanted to be in, or just trying to figure out the ins and outs of campus life. Many of you would agree that being a sophomore in college had its pros and cons. Now, what if you threw in a disability into the equation?
In Good’s novel, “The Opposite of Falling Apart”, you get to take a front row seat into the lives of two sophomores with two completely different disabilities. As each teenager tries to survive the radical change that happens when moving off to college, they realize that this pivotal time in their lives was going to be harder than they imagined. As the bond between them grew so did the obstacles.
Good was very skilled at allowing the reader to feel the emotions that came up for each character and travel on that emotional journey with them. She also created characters that each reader could relate to. There were many moments in the book that I felt the struggle and conflicting pain of the main character, Brennan, and could reflect on that same pain in my own life.
Being a young writer, Good has chosen a specific writing technique that would help young readers understand what thoughts can do to an individual if not controlled. She cleverly opens up the thought process of each character and allows the reader to comprehend why they made a certain choice.
I’m interested in seeing what Good has in store for her next book and possibly seeing a part two to this novel.
Photo Credit: Emma Boyer & Michela DellaMonica