A Little Something Different by Sandy HallMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I won a set of Swoon Reads titles in 2015 in their Swoon Reads NaNoWriMo Sweepstakes after winning NaNoWriMo (wrote 50,000+ words). With my continued problems with reading comprehension from my brain injury, despite my intentions, I didn't get to reading any of them until this one now.
To recap: I underwent the Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing Program to regain my reading comprehension about a year ago. This past year has been finding books to practice my regained skills on.
Since I was entering my 11th NaNoWriMo, I needed a light, escapist read, something that wouldn't tax my mental resources toooo much. A Little Something Different fit the bill. It was at the top of my Swoon Reads stack, and that's how I chose it. Take the top book off the stack, settle in to my chair, and begin to read it.
It is a little something different. This is the first book I've read that tells the story of a romance from the point of view of everyone except the two protagonists. Even more intriguing, the points of view included ones that at first seemed a little strange but, thinking about it later, ingeniously allowed us to eavesdrop on conversations or body language that otherwise we couldn't have. And they added whimsy and fun to the story. The author was very good at capturing the different voices.
The romance is between two college students somewhere in the US over the course of a school year. From some unfamiliar-to-me terms like upper classmen, I assume it's an Ivy League or New England university. They meet in the first chapter as witnessed by Lea's roommate Maribel. Lea is the female half of the romantic couple; Gabe the other half. Over time, the author very very slowly reveals the backgrounds of Lea and Gabe, which makes it difficult to visualize them. It's sort of like a social media point of view of anonymous accounts where all we know is the gender . . . maybe. It's good for getting to know a person in the virtual world, not so much a character in a work of fiction. That may or may not have factored into my difficulty in developing a progressive "big picture" of the story. I kind of lost my way and forgot at least one key event till a character reminded me much later.
The other problem I had was why Lea, a freshman, was in a class for juniors. That question was never answered (until I read the Q&A with the author at the back of the book). And the lack of descriptive detail may have made it quicker to read -- get to the action and dialogue! -- but difficult to visualize it beyond sketch level.
Physically, it has a nice amount of white space, large font, laid out in short sections -- all these features make it physically easy to read, a bonus for a person with brain injury. I was able to abandon my 19-years-long habit of blocking off the facing page with blank white paper. Awesome! The story had a bit of mystery to it. It had the usual teenage-young adult drama, a bit nostalgic for an older reader like me. The ending, though sort of abrupt, wrapped up some threads and was satisfying. It was the perfect light read when all you want is escape, a different kind of story with familiar motifs, and not to work the brain too hard.
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