Potential minor spoilers for Far From You by Tess Sharpe, I do promise to not to give away “whodunit” 😉

First off; isn’t this a gorgeous cover? Although it’s also a bit sad when you realize what part of the book this was taken from.

sharpe-farfromyou1

Sophie Winters nearly died. Twice.

The first time, she’s fourteen, and escapes a near-fatal car accident with scars, a bad leg, and an addiction to Oxy that’ll take years to kick.

The second time, she’s seventeen, and it’s no accident. Sophie and her best friend Mina are confronted by a masked man in the woods. Sophie survives, but Mina is not so lucky. When the cops deem Mina’s murder a drug deal gone wrong, casting partial blame on Sophie, no one will believe the truth: Sophie has been clean for months, and it was Mina who led her into the woods that night for a meeting shrouded in mystery.

After a forced stint in rehab, Sophie returns home to a chilly new reality. Mina’s brother won’t speak to her, her parents fear she’ll relapse, old friends have become enemies, and Sophie has to learn how to live without her other half. To make matters worse, no one is looking in the right places, and Sophie must search for Mina’s murderer on her own. But with every step, Sophie comes closer to revealing all: about herself, Mina, and the secret they shared.

I love finding mysteries in the teen or young adult sections, there are not nearly enough of them and I practically bounced around in glee when I found this one.

This story may be told from Sophie’s point of view, but it is Mina’s presence that haunts this story and makes it so gripping. The story alternates between present day and flashbacks so we really get to know these characters and their shared history in a way that is intimate and also sad. Because the really big question throughout? It isn’t who killed Mina, it’s will Sophie really be able to cope without the girl who made her life scary, beautiful, sad, and wonderful all at the same time.

The conclusion was satisfying, if somewhat predictable. There were only three characters in this story who didn’t earn some empathy from me and I think that what really made this story, besides Mina’s presence even when she wasn’t really there, was how realistically these characters were portrayed, their faults and insecurities were really brought to the forefront which helped to make this into a dark and gritty story. I was seriously crying by the end, I felt so sad for practically everybody, especially Sophie.

I have a lot of feels about this book, I do think the main reason I connected to the story so well is because I connected to the three main female characters in completely different ways, Rachel’s love of being odd, Sophie’s determination, and Mina’s… uh, well everything. I swear I could be Mina, there was one point where I was thinking ‘hmm, if it were me I’d  do “this” because I bet you it’d make Sophie smile’ guess what Mina did on the next page, exactly what I was thinking of, I was grinning so hard at it, and at Sophie’s reaction, that my cheeks started hurting.

I highly recommend Far From You to anyone who likes mysteries or just a good story.