Fixing Delilah [Book Review]

Fixing Delilah
By: Sarah Ockler
Published: December 1, 2010
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Finished On: September 24, 2011

Summary: Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart. She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her “boyfriend” isn’t much of a boyfriend. And her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided their family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems is a Hannaford tradition. Over a summer of new friendships, unexpected romance, and moments that test the complex bonds between mothers and daughters, Delilah must face her family’s painful past. Can even her most shattered relationships be pieced together again?

Everyone knows that it’s impossible to find a perfect family and it’s OK to not have one and this book portrays that concept beautifully. I loved this book. It definitely deserves a 5 star rating but I can’t say that it’s one of my favorite books. It brought out many different emotions going from confusion, sadness to happiness and from angry to crying. It was filled with emotion that anyone can relate to especially in Delilah’s life. This book did not have any boring moments at all. I was able to read this book at a reasonable pace without having to put it down for a long time just because it was boring. And there was also many quotes that were amazing.

The characters of the book were written very realistically. it felt as if I could see these people living in my world. There was a lot of character development from Delilah and her mother because they both learn to face their past and the secrets and problems that her mother has kept hidden. Delilah and Patrick were great characters and all but in the middle I found them to be a little annoying when they were together but I think that was because of their stubbornness. Emily was super nice and sweet and I never expected the secret that she spilled.

The plot was great and the secrets and relationships between all the characters developed slowly. The ending was good but somewhere between the middle and the end of the story made me cry. That was totally epic and unexpected. I think that Sarah Ockler did a great job in writing all of the characters and we were able to get a lot of them in just one book. Not a lot of authors are able to do it in one book. Though I did with that “CC” showed up in the story because I felt he was a pretty vague character but he had a huge impact in the story.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for quick, heartbreak to heartwarming summer read (even though summer is over), and also to anyone looking for romance and family issues. This book teaches a great lesson: Family. It’s not always a perfect fit.