Words and their Meanings (review)

4/5 stars

Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about Words and their Meanings (Goodreads | Amazon).  At first, I felt like the protagonist tried way too hard to be different. But as the book progressed things that seemed like flaws made sense as the story unveiled itself.

This story is a portrait of one girl's all consuming grief and guilt.  But more than that, it's little pictures of how those around her are dealing with the same grief.  It's different for everyone, no two grievers handle everything the same.

Still in the midst of her grief over the death of her young uncle, more of a brother, Anna discovers a secret note that makes her question who her uncle was.  The story really gets underway when Anna decides to investigate what the note means to find out the truth about her uncle.  It's easier to focus on that the the all-consuming grief.

"In the long run, you need to understand that people --even the best people people --are always more and less than we imagine."

The book is written very poetically, with a main character who's a gifted writer it needs to be.  Oddly enough I'm not sure how much the story actually matters, this is a book that's more driven by feelings and characters.  That's not a bad thing.  Sometimes that's how stories need to be told.  This is the story of pain, grief and hopefully understanding, not really the story of a mystery being solved. For this book, that's a good thing.

I received an advanced reading e-book in exchange for an honest review.