Title: Crazy Beautiful
Author: Lauren Baratz-Logsted
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Source: Provided by Author
Parental Warning: violence

“Entering the bus now is perfection.  And it’s not just the clothes and accessories, which make her look as though she just walked out of the pages of the coolest back-to-school catalog in the world.  It’s not that in a world that mostly always looks like black and white to me she’s like this shocking blaze of color.  It’s not any of that.  It’s that with that cloud of long black curls, she’s like some sort of dark angel.  And it’s that when my eyes meet hers, eyes that are the color of a serene ocean, she gives me a quick smile, a nervous smile.”

Summary:
Lucius has made one large overwhelmingly tragic misstep in his life.  A misstep that has disabled him and caused great torment in his life and the lives of those he loves.  Aurora having endured a tragedy of her own endures the loss of a loved one.   In a moment of silent connection the two become bound by their respective traumatic pasts to start building a tentative friendship.

Both now living in the same new town and going to the same new school they’re experience traditional high school experiences from different ends of the spectrum.  He being an outcast because of his disability and she being the cute new girl instantly catapulted into the poplar group.  Each feeling a magnetic pull towards the other both are hesitant to make any real connection.

Many would think this is because of the high school caste system but in reality it has more to do with each of their inner demons than anything else.

Opinion:
I adored this book.  A unique love story that provides the reader not only the expected romance but also teaches a good many lessons about acceptance and individuality.

I also enjoy when a book allows me to not only see emotion but  feel them.   In this way Lucius jumped off the page for me much more than Aurora.  We felt her loss to be sure, but I felt it more so through her interactions with her father.  Lucius, on the other hand, was all feelings and turmoil.  In every interaction he had with people large and small in his life and even in his own internal dialogue you could feel the torment, conflict, longing and love.  Genuinely regretful of the circumstances that led him to his disability he continually struggled with how to adjust to the reality of it’s consequences.

One of the greatest strengths Baratz-Logsted wrote into the book was portraying the story in alternating point of view.  The recounting of events from both Lucius and Aurora gives the reader a well rounded perspective.  I believe it also gives us the ability to root for the two of them to find a way to be together despite the obstacles of popularity, disability and emotional turmoil.  It was extremely well done.

I have to admit I had read the back of this book in the bookstore multiple times and was extremely skeptical of a love story where the popular girl falls for the boy with such a visible and pronounced disability.  But in the end watching these teenagers attempting to overcome that adversity is what made the story for me.  I appreciated the struggle as they worked to get together, that the author didn’t make it easy peasy, and I liked that nothing about the journey was cliched.

Definitely take the time to read this book, it’s so very worth it.