TITLE & AUTHOR: The Museum of You by Carys Bray
I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. WHAT'S IT'S ABOUT PUBLISHER: Cornerstone Digital
EDITION: KindleOPENING
WHAT I THOUGHT RELEASE DATE: 15 June 2016
PAGES: 363
Clover Quinn was a surprise. She used to imagine she was the good kind, now she's not sure. She'd like to ask Dad about it, but growing up in the saddest chapter of someone else's story is difficult. She tries not to skate on the thin ice of his memories.
Darren has done his best. He's studied his daughter like a seismologist on the lookout for waves and surrounded her with everything she might want - everything he can think of, at least - to be happy.
What Clover wants is answers. This summer, she thinks she can find them in the second bedroom, which is full of her mother's belongings. Volume isn't important, what she is looking for is essence; the undiluted bits: a collection of things that will tell the full story of her mother, her father and who she is going to be.
But what you find depends on what you're searching for.
This is happiness, Clover thinks as she hefts the watering can and an old bucket. The clear arc of sky. The melty sun. The hum of insects. The smell of growing. The reds and browns of the fences dividing the Tetris pattern of plots. Every shade of green. The warm air. Her heaving effort. The way the stones crunch under her trainers and the dust rises, coating her bare legs.
The Museum of You is one of the most touching books I've read in a long time. This one really tugged at my heart-strings. The book reminds me a lot of one of my absolutely favourite movies, Jack and Sarah. This is a book about pain, loss and grief. It's about how we cope when love is taken from us and how we try to build a new life from the pieces that remain. I loved the characters in this book, so real they stepped off the page, walked around my living room and had conversations with me. I adored Clover. Her quest to find answers is heart-breaking at times. Each chapter ends with information about a random object that belonged to her mother as she catalogues her memories and the fragments that remain. I found it hard to put the book down when I started to read it. The Museum of You haunted me. The book has a lot of sad moments and a lot of funny ones, one of those books that make you laugh when it's carving out a chunk of your heart. The Museum of You is utterly brilliant.
