Weekly Reads: The Beginning of Everything

I have had The Beginning of Everything sitting on my stack of books to read forever. I had heard some feedback from one of my book club members that made me think I had to be "prepared" to read this book. So I waited. Until I felt "prepared" or whatever.

The tragedy in the story is really from the get go, which is nice, you don't spend the whole time reading hearing "don don doooooooooooon" droning in the back of your head. It's an excellent coming of age story, love story, and an I'm 17 and have no freakin' clue who I am story, which a lot of teens (and adults) will relate to and love. There are some excellent twists along the way, as well as some parallel relations to The Great Gatsby that Ezra is reading for class, and coincidentally I just finished listening to on audiobook (the number of classic novels I've read is embarrassingly low. Everyone assumes librarians have read every classic book ever written, but nope, not this gal... I'm working on it!)

My rating: 5 stars

Summary from goodreads:

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.

No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.

But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes? 

Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.