Review: The Catastrophic History Of You And Me By: Jess Rothenberg

Title: The Catastrophic History Of You And Me

Author: Jess Rothenberg

Published: February 21st, 2012

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!

Source: Bought

Buy The Book: Amazon/Barnes andNoble/The  Book Depository

Goodreads Summary:

Dying of a broken heart is just the beginning.... Welcome to forever.

BRIE'S LIFE ENDS AT SIXTEEN: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart—literally.

But now that she's D&G (dead and gone), Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend has been keeping a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost—and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul . . . who just might hold the key to her forever after.

With Patrick's help, Brie will have to pass through the five stages of grief before she's ready to move on. But how do you begin again, when your heart is still in pieces?

  My Thoughts:

 I absolutely and completely loved this book more than words can even express! This is definitely one of the best contemporary books I have read, as Rothenberg's debut is funny, smart, witty, and heartbreaking. I can't wait to read another book from her because this book was just  amazing, throughout the book  I think I went through every single emotion that I could and I even teared up towards the end. 

Brie died at the age of 16 right after her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, her heart breaks and she is gone. As she goes to the "beyond", which in the beginning is an old pizza place that was a favorite of her family, and she is not the only one spending her after life hanging out in a pizza place, a guy named Patrick who becomes her afterlife guide of sorts is there and is ready to help Brie face everything she left behind. Brie and Patrick had this relationship that made me smile throughout the entire book, with witty teenage banter, I really felt each of their personalities and they seemed exactly how real teenagers would talk and act, Rothenberg did a great job of making her characters seem completely real and come alive off of the page. 

Brie's friends and family are not handling her death as well as she would have hoped and everything is unraveling before her eyes and there is nothing that she can do to help them.  Her dad is a renowned cardiologist who has become obsessed with finding out what happened to Brie's heart and why he couldn't have known, he feels responsible like he should have known that her heart was weak and that because of his occupation that he should have been able to stop it and help her.

 Brie goes through each of the stages of grief, she watches her friends and the boy who broke her heart, finding out secrets about them and even about herself that change everything.  There was so many different moments throughout this story that gave you so many different feelings and that is one of the things that I loved the most about this book, it gave you a little bit of everything. At times you wanted to laugh and Brie's antics and at times you wanted to cry with her as she realized that everything she thought wasn't really what it seemed as she gained some perspective from her life.

I highly recommend this book for contemporary fans and non-contemporary fans alike, It was definitely a great read and one of my favorites of this year!

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