Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to similar audio books?
Excellent
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Not applicable
Advantages:
Engaging and Emotive, a lovely idea
Disadvantages:
Too tempting to read ahead before you're supposed to !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
It started with the headaches.
Holly and Gerry had always been childhood sweethearts, and imagined growing old together. Those plans were dashed aside when Gerry was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Over the next months, he goes through radiation therapy and operations in the hope of overcoming it, but in the end the tumour wins. Holly is left alone for the first time in her life. Even with friends and family just a stones throw away, she is undeniably alone.
After several weeks of not leaving the house or getting out of bed, Holly is finally persuaded to come and collect a letter for her that has been waiting at her mother's house. Inside are a series of notes, to Holly from Gerry, to get her through the remainder of the year. There is a note for each month, from March through to December each with a task or challenge, or simply an instruction on it that Holly has to carry out. It seems this is a project Gerry had been working on for some time, and even in his dying and constantly watched state, no one knew!
As the year unfolds, Gerry's notes help Holly to grow stronger, and to learn how to live life again, without feeling guilty to be doing so, how to enjoy the memories she has of Gerry, rather than cry over them. The notes become the Ten Commandments that Holly lives by, and her purpose in life seems to be awaiting the first of the next month (she couldn't even open one early because he'd know she'd 'cheated'!). While in the beginning she urges the days to go faster so the next note can be opened, by the last few she is dreading the time when no more notes will be waiting.
Opinion This book made me well-up on more than a handful of occasions! It's written in such an emotive way, that even though it's in the third person you feel as if Holly were right there in front of you, telling you the story herself. Half the time, the welling-up wasn't even when holly herself was upset, but on occasions where friends do something special, or Holly analyses something a certain way that it just rings true, even though I personally haven't been through anything like the situations in the book!
Never once do we truly meet Gerry, but by the end, it's as if you know him. Cecelia Ahern writes in such an evocative and enchanting way, that even without huge chunks of descriptive text, you can picture every scene perfectly and watch everything play out.
Each month Holly receives the next note from Gerry, and each time the contents of the note is written in italics. On several occasions, the note comes two thirds of the way down the right hand page, and I had to physically cover it up to stop myself reading those few special lines, I just needed to know what it would say every time! The notes always fit so perfectly with the story (of course, for the benefit of a novel they were designed that way). On the one hand you wonder how Gerry could possibly have known she'd be feeling exactly that on a certain day and remember that it's just a book after all. But then on the other hand, the less cynical hand, Gerry was the person who knew Holly the best in the entire world, so if he can't predict what she's thinking, who can?!
Like a lot of books I read where you end up tied up in the characters life, I'd love to see a sequel to this book, to learn what happens when there are no more notes to open. That was possibly the most agonising part of the book, the 'THE END' on the last page, right after she has finally gone for that coffee with … Ahh!
Conclusion I picked this book up for 89p from a charity shop and it was worth every penny! Even the full price of £6.99 would have been good value, and I can see this becoming a book I read many times in the next years. No matter where you are in life, you'll find something to relate to in this book, whether it be loss of someone you love, or supportive friends, a manic family, questionable friendship or relationship, and so much more.
PS, I Love You
Cecelia Ahern's debut novel, PS, I Love You, follows the engaging, witty and occasionally
... more
sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomethin...
PS, I Love You
Cecelia Ahern's debut novel, PS, I Love You, follows the engaging, witty and occasionally
... more
sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomethin...
PS, I Love You
Cecelia Ahern's debut novel, PS, I Love You, follows the engaging, witty and occasionally
... more
sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomethin...
sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomething...
sappy reawakening of Holly, a young Irish widow who must put her life back together after she loses her husband Gerry to a brain tumour. Ahern, the twentysomething...
very helpful
