‘I’ve grown up, while she’s grown down.’

I love and hate reviewing books in almost the same way that I love and hate Nowhere Boulevard. I love that it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, and hate the suffering that author Katherine Black puts her young protagonist through; while on the review front I love being able to give five stars but hate that I can’t say exactly what I’d like to for fear of spoiling the book for others.

Thirteen-year-old Sarah is already struggling with adolescence and the onset of puberty, so she isn’t exactly delighted by the news that her mother is pregnant. She gets over her initial disgust that her parents are still having sex though (in their thirties, shock horror), and warms to the idea, deciding which sex she’d like and thinking up names for her soon-to-be sibling. Pregnancy isn’t the only thing that’s happening to mum Annie, however, and ensuing events soon make the news of this one of the best things that’s ever happened to Sarah.

The narrative of this tear-jerker is related from the perspective of the young girl, told from the diaries that she kept throughout a turbulent year. Sarah, one of the unluckiest characters I’ve ever met, is forced to be old before her time and support her father in caring for her stricken mother.

And when you think it can’t get any worse for her, there’s that ending. Enough said. Read it with tissues handy.

Nowhere Boulevard by Katherine Black is one of those books I started to read not really expecting to finish. I’m not typically a YA fan, but I picked this book up from a recommendation on Facebook. The reviews were good, and the subject matter was intriguing, so I thought why not give it a go. I opened this story not expecting to read past the first chapter or two. I didn’t close it until I’d read the whole book.

I don’t need to go over the subject matter. You can get an idea from the blurb. What I will say, having raised my fair share of teenagers, is that the author really hit on the emotional roller coaster ride that most teenagers go through. The voice was authentic. Most teenagers just want to fit in with their peers. They want normal. Sarah’s life is anything but normal. She has more to deal with than most adults could hope to handle.

The ending of this literally shocked me. As in I actually jumped. I won’t give it away. You’ll have to get the book and read it for yourself. All I can say is you won’t regret it. It’s one of those reads that tends to stick with you for a while. I’m giving it four stars over five because I did find the odd formatting a distraction in my kindle edition. If the author gets this corrected, definitely a five-star read.