We'll Never Be Apart

I picked up We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean and didn't put it down until I read the very last page. This novel was full of twists and turns, important mental health topics, some romance, as well as the topic of grief. While I guessed where this novel was headed pretty early (more than likely because I saw bits of Identical by Ellen Hopkins in it) the journey there was beautiful. This novel touched on hard topics in an approachable way. I believe very strongly in erasing the stigma surrounding mental illness and the best way to do that is education in my mind. But this novel didn't only deal with mental illness, it dealt a lot with grief, an area very much in my interest due to my work with Comfort Zone Camp.

In the novel we meet Alice, an identical twin who narrates this novel. We see Alice in two different ways; one in the present as she is committed in a mental ward at Savage Isle in Oregon, and another through her journal she writes while she is there, that looks back at her life. We learn of Alice and her twin sister Celia's hard upbringing from the moment their grandpa died and they became orphans. At that point, the Alice and Cellie decided to never be apart, no matter what. Cellie is obsessed with fire, and starting fire's seems to be the only thing that can truly calm her down. But fire causes destruction, and Cellie only causes more destruction with each new fire. So as Cellie got sicker and sicker, Alice would take blame for things and stick with her sister through it all. Through the endless merry go round of foster homes to Jason to Savage Isle to death and rebirth.

We meet Alice as she returns to Savage Isle after being in the hospital from a fire her sister set that killed her love, Jason, and nearly killed her. She's reeling from the death of Jason and trying to process his death when she learns she's being charged for his death, not just Cellie. We see Alice trying to cope with his death, and try to remember what really happened that night she escaped Savage Isle with Jason. We see the new relationships she forms with her roommate and the mysterious Chase. We see Alice break down and build back up. We see heartbreaking betrayals and portrayals of mourning.

What happens when Alice remembers what happened that night? What happens when Alice sets out to kill Cellie with Chase's help? Will Alice ever get her start at a new life apart from Cellie, where she can blossom and prove she's not one of "the fire setters."

We'll Never Be Apart is out in bookstores now :)