Book Review: Far From You by Tess Sharpe

Far From You
Tess Sharpe
Genre(s): Contemporary, Mystery, Young Adult
Published: March 27th 2014
Pages: 343
Rating: 2.5 stars

“Nine months. Two weeks. Six days.

That's how long recovering addict Sophie's been drug-free. Four months ago her best friend, Mina, died in what everyone believes was a drug deal gone wrong - a deal they think Sophie set up. Only Sophie knows the truth. She and Mina shared a secret, but there was no drug deal. Mina was deliberately murdered.

Forced into rehab for an addiction she'd already beaten, Sophie's finally out and on the trail of the killer—but can she track them down before they come for her?”

Far From You wastes no time with the before. It jumps straight into the after, combining present day and past to tell Sophie and Mina's story.

To start with, things were a bit confusing to me. I was intrigued, don't get me wrong, but the chapter headings - 'Now (June)' and '3 months ago (17 years old)' - held no significance for me and left me scratching my head. The change of font between then and now did help, but I couldn't help but find both places in time read very similarly. A clear distinction between the two, such as splitting the book into two halves, rather than alternating, would have been better, in my opinion.

I liked that Sophie wasn't the typically beautiful and perfect main character that tries to call themselves ugly or weird. She came across as normal - troubled and scarred, but very real. I didn't really connect that much with her or any of the other characters, but it was nice to see a more relateable main character in a young adult contemporary piece.

However, I could not empathise or even bring myself to care about Mina. She was a manic pixie dream girl, a la Alaska in Looking for Alaska, manipulating everyone and not feeling sorry for being a bitch (seriously, Sophie says as much yet still put her on this pedestal). That's just something I cannot get behind, and her personality and the way everyone was 'oh poor Mina boo hoo' did not sit well with me. Ugh.

The biggest downfall of this, which promised to be be so good, was that it was slow. And boring. Slow books, while exceptionally annoying, I can deal with. Boring books, not so much. The combination of the two just let me down. I was drawn in by the cover and the synopsis, but when I started to read I couldn't help but feel disappointed. Throughout, I was waiting for things to pick up, but they never really did. I got through the book pretty quickly, but the plot dragged and it took ages for the thriller aspect to actually start. There was a lot of reminiscing that didn't help further things, and I honestly could have done without it.

I'd also managed to guess the plot twist of Mina and Sophie being in a relationship very early. The fact that Sophie said 'I loved Mina' to her therapist at rehab, and how she described Trev's features as being similar to a familiar face that she'd already studied - or something to that effect, at least. It was quite obvious at several points, and wasn't the massive surprise it was no doubt meant to be.

Overall, this wasn't terrible. Not quite what I expected, but I didn't hate it at the end.