So Far Away: A Novel

An interesting and new way to approach cyber bullying. The hot topic was a part of this novel, but not the sole center, which I appreciated. Natalie - a high school freshmen and Kathleen - a career woman who has lost both a daughter and a husband are an unlikely pair, but their relationship in this book was perfectly scripted. Without any chapters, this book was interesting as it switched focus between the characters with strategic spacing. Because the book switched between characters, the reader was able to get to know each character on their own turf, which made me fall in love with them in their own space. I loved that Kathleen was given the opportunity to help raise another teenager, it was so fitting that she have a second chance. At the same moment, I loved how Natalie was given another maternal figure to lean on until her mother was able to pull it together and re-enter her child's life. This book showed me once again that it definitely takes a village to raise a child - sometimes parents are inadequate or just not the answer to the problem that a child has, they may just need someone outside of the family to lean on through a difficult time. A great book that both showed the destruction of family, but the reconstruction of a different kind of family.