The Quick Cut: Two teens whose lives were forever changed on 9/11 find them intertwined again when they go looking into that day again together.
A Real Review:
September 11th is a date that no American alive at the time will ever forget. Permanently engraved on their minds, it was a day of pain and loss where so many died... while many others heroically did what they could to save anyone they can. But what about over a decade later? How are they faring now that so much time has passed? Did they ever get a semblance of normalcy back? This is the story explored with Abbi and Noah.
Abbi is cursed with being infamous. Although she was only a baby that day, it is her face in that popular photo from 9/11 that everyone remembers and reacts to. Even now in her teens, strangers recognize her in public and break down at the sight. She would do anything to put that day behind her, but it seems to haunt her... and that haunting is taking a physical toll she's hiding. It's in this moment that Noah recognizes Abbi and blackmails her into helping with a special newspaper article about that infamous photo. Will Noah confess his true reasons for the interest? Can Abbi survive long enough to find out?
Beyond the fact that September 11th is a heavy day in history, 9/11 Syndrome is a topic far too rarely discussed. The survivors and heroes from that tragic day are dying and the resources they need to fight have been a battle to keep. So to see this phenomenon take a preliminary spotlight in a book, it truly warmed my heart. To then have that book tell such a powerful story? It really did move me in ways I never expected to.
Abbi as a character found her life destroyed by a day that occurred before her memory was fully developed. She can't go anywhere without recognition in the worst of ways, one that gives her more weight than she should bear. She's struggled with Asthma and watched others who survived die from 9/11 Syndrome when she starts coughing blood. The level of trauma and pain she carries is immense, believable, and felt through the words on every page.
Noah is a tricky character in the way he appears to have recovered just fine from 9/11, but he carries a pain inside. One that eats him inside and causes him emotional trauma. Seeing that play out and how it impacts his mom, Abbi, and his best friend really speaks to the ability of the author to weave in the tangled webs we weave. None of us carry our pain alone and this story spotlights that so vividly.
Although slow at moments, this dual perspective tale about 9/11 survivors packs a punch.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5