My Cup of Tea

This is a book about grief. It may be classified as contemporary romance, young adult. NOPE. This book is doubtlessly and thoroughly about mourning, about a young girl learning how to deal with the loss of the most important person in her life.

Lennon and Bailey were inseparable. They shared everything, understood everything about each other, even when Lennie was this quiet bookworm, clarinet geek and Bailey was all kinds of extroverted and wild. Bailey's death turns some kind of switch inside Lennie's brain and she's suddenly very much awake, feeling everything vividly. She finds that joy and pain will forever go hand in hand without her sister next to her.
Her devastated self can't seem to find nobody to understand her sorrow. Except for Toby, Bailey's boyfriend. Being with him evokes the memory of Bails in a peaceful way, without it reaping her apart.
But life is full of surprises, and soon enough there is Joe as well. All bright and sorrow-less Joe, promising a world full of chocolate, smiles and music.
Both of them make her feel better, and both make her feel guilty.

So, you see, there is romance. That even sounds like a love triangle, but believe me not even Pitágoras would have known where to start with Lennie.
Love is actually everywhere in this book, but sadness is always two sentences away. And it works. Wonderfully in my personal opinion. Because all between the sadness and love drama, I end up smiling and even laughing at such charming and dorky characters.
(...) Gram is fixing breakfast ashes, Big is sweeping the rafters for dead moths to put under his pyramids, and I am trying not to make out with my spoon (...)

While reading and trying to control the goofy emotional imbalance, I came to the realization that this book might not be for everyone. Aside from Lennie's moral ambiguity and the tragic main theme, Jandy Nelson seems to be in the habit of turning the volume full up, writing bordering cheesy, making love all brightness and a Big Bang of colors and characters seem too fun and lovely to be true. And I don't even care. This book made me feel and sometimes that's all it takes for me to give a solid 5 stars.

That's a misconception, Lennie. The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.

*PS: For once the blurb is trusty, I think Rainbow Rowell's fan could love this book.
*PS2: Everyone and their mother says the physical edition is beautiful, full of illustrations of Lennie's little poems. Should buy it.