All My Life is a story about a teenage girl who falls in love with the wrong guy at first so that she can fall for the right one further down the road. Sounds cheesy and typical right? Wrong. What you'll find in this story is a girl who unfortunately is introduced to love with a slap in the face but has the most unlikely path to finding out what real love is all about. I thought Kari's story about pain and suffering was one that all girls will relate too, even if her story has never happened to them. Will Kari find her happily ever after with Neil? Or will her past cause her to run off the tracks forever?
I really liked Kari as a character. I thought her transition from young and naive to paranoid and quite was something that I completely understood. Obviously considering her situation with Eddie, she had life really tech her a lesson in what trusting someone meant. I thought you could clearly see the change within herself right on the page, meaning there was a difference in the words written defined by what was going on within the story. That was refreshing. I always love to see a characters growth during a story and Kari went from good to bad and back again a number of times, and you could tell. That is not easy to accomplish. Plus, you can tell what her emotions are at all times during the story, which is a lot on insight into a character. Bravo.
Neil Mars is a male lead that I can really get behind, if you know what I mean (waggles eyebrows). No seriously, even though he is described as all tall dark and handsome, there is more to him than just looks. He brings out a side of Kari that was missing as soon as Eddie screws with her. He understands Kari before he even realizes what she's going through and is the supporting friend she needs. He may have a few skeletons in his own closet but Neil is exactly what the doctor ordered so we could get Kari back on her feet.
As a story, I really liked All My Life. I thought it gave great detail about the lives of the characters we read about and does a nice job of teaching us a lesson about love, or loss. That supporting characters are a nice accent to the main and really moved the story along at a nice pace. I will have to say though, that this book is written in a stream-of-consciousness type of way an can be confusing sometimes. Everything in Kari's head is just tumbling out at once. If you ever heard a teenage girl talk or have a daughter, you can understand my point. It does get smashed together a lot and sometimes I had to re-read parts but I got why the author wrote it that way. You were front row to what was going on in the character's (Kari) head and really felt everything she felt. It was an effective way to bring emotion to a bunch of words and I can respect the choice.
Originally Posted: http://thebookblogattheendoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2013/07/review-all-my-life-by-rucy-ban.html
