Hold Still by Nina Lacour [book review]
Book: Hold Still
Author: Nina Lacour
Published: October 20, 2009
Publisher: Dutton Books
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 230
About Hold Still
Caitlin has gone through a hard time after losing her best friend to suicide. Now she’s alone by loss and by choice. She’s trying to find hope again but it’s a huge struggle. With the help of family and new friends she starts to realize that friendships didn’t die with her best friend. The journal Ingrid left her is just another tool to help her through her grief and to feel close to Ingrid again.
What I thought
I picked up Hold Still a while back but I’m not fully sure why. I’m sure it was partly because of the cover. It’s so pretty and quickly caught my attention. For some reason I have a tendency to really like books that deal with anxiety and depression. You would think that I wouldn’t considering that I go through both. Why would I want to read books over something that I already deal with? It would seem depressing and for most people it actually might be.
For me it’s almost a comfort. I get that I’m not alone, but they can be very isolating. Books like this make me realize that I’m really not alone. So many people deal with this sort of thing and it’s crazy to me that we all still feel so alone. To me Hold Still does a great job when it comes to dealing with grief. It does a great job when it comes to dealing with the shock of a sudden death. I have dealt with before and you are completely blindsided. Sometimes you just don’t really see the sadness no matter how close you are to that person. We don’t really think these things will happen until it does.
My main issue is the photography teacher that Caitlin has. I get everyone handles grief differently, but I wish she would have handled it differently. It would make me feel horrible if one of my favorite teachers treated me horribly after I was already grieving.
To me Hold Still is a solid four-star book. It kept my interest and made you feel deeply about the characters. If you enjoyed, You Can go Your Own Way then you’ll enjoy Hold Still as well.
