On most schools, teenagers need to read books for a subject. It’s, of course, the same on my school. I’ll have to read 4 books for Dutch, a book for French and 2 books for English. Now I never really liked the books that we had to read because we never got to choose which one. It’s always from a list and that list is boring and most of the time there isn’t any young adult. I love young adult, I only read young adult but this time for English we got something I really enjoyed reading: “How I love now” by Meg Rosoff.
15-year-old Daisy is sent off to her aunt and cousins in England. She doesn’t want to go simply because she doesn’t feel the need but also because she doesn’t know them. She never met them before and Daisy rather just relaxes by herself. When she arrives, she immediately regrets it. Her little niece just keeps asking her attention but so does one of her cousins: Edmund. There's just something about him but she can't put her finger on it.
Soon her aunt has to leave for business and Daisy is left alone in England with her cousins and her little niece. Daisy starts feeling better around her family, especially because there are no parents around, no adults. Until there’s a bombing in London by an unknown enemy and days later it is confirmed that a war has begun. The teenagers live on edge and try to make the best of it while they’re safe, thinking that the war won’t get to their little village. But soon it all changes when they get taken. Boys go to the war and the women go to a safer place. Edmund and Daisy have fallen fiercely in love only to be ripped apart from each other because of the war. It’s everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
This book! But the bad thing first. The book is divided in two parts. That first part was for me the worst part because there were literally no but really no speech marks. I was sometimes so confused with who said this sentence? Is this something someone says or is this Daisy thinking? It caused a lot of confusion with me. I’ve never had a book like this before which only made it more weird for me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t like what was said or how Daisy thought, I just would’ve enjoyed it more if it did have the speech marks. It would’ve been more structured.
But other than that... Daisy, is such an interesting character! From being really silent and distant in the beginning of the book, she becomes such an adult towards the end. It’s fascinating how you can see her change and that it is all caused by the war. She has to grow up fast in order to be safe and save her niece and herself from the cruel monsters of the war.
I also liked the relationship between Edmund and Daisy. It’s soft and cute, the desperate need to be with each other but due to the war they can’t. They’ll have to fight (literally) for their love but also for their own lives.
The book also reflects the situation, emotions, uncertainty,... that people must have felt during the war. Not knowing if they’ll ever get home is a big aspect that gets discussed in the book. It gave me as a reader more perspective in how they could have felt during those dark times. So hands down for this book! It’s good! Even though I had so many frustrations because there weren’t any speech marks, I do recommend the book. It’s not really a documentation of facts from the war but more a story during the war which makes it a nice read instead of a boring one.
A fun fact about this book is that the book is now a movie and I’ve watched it. There are so many things alike but also differences. I loved the actors who played the characters from the book and let’s be honest... Edmund is adorable, brave, sweet, mysterious. I love Edmund, especially in the film. I also recommend the film but I would read the book first. I had it in a different order, I first saw the movie and then the book but I think it's better if you read first and then watch it.
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