Review: This Place Is Still Beautiful

 It took me an approx of 10-12 days to get my hands on this. Because no matter where I looked near me, I couldn't actually find it.  And everything is so limited here ever since the network was cut off, ugh, it's like nothing in my life is going right these days. UGHHH.

Despite having had near-identical upbringings, sisters Annalie and Margaret agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn't wait to leave their oppressive small-town home and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie couldn't think of anything worse - she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines.

That is, until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.

Outraged, Margaret flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms. Instead, she's amazed to hear they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a 'normal' summer - which Margaret is determined to ruin, apparently.

Back under each other's skins, things between Margaret and Annalie get steadily worse - and not even the distraction of first love (for Annalie), or lost love (for Margaret) can bring them together.

Until a crushing secret finally tears them apart, forever.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 4/5, LOVE THE STORY, THOUGH I'D HAVE LIKED TO SEE MORE OF ANNALIE AND MARGARET DYNAMIC.

Possible Trigger Tags:

1. Racism

2. Use of racial slurs

3. Sibling rivalry

4. Hate crimes 

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: I really love how the story's written and how the dual POV is written in two distinct ways so that I can actually distinguish which sister is which. And that's really nice because it often happens in other books that the style of speaking is so similar that it's often hard to distinguish whose POV it actually is. The thought processes and the insight sure as heck are different when compared.  

2. Character Development: I really love how the characters are developed. They have depth, struggles and traits that makes everyone so unique from the other. The two sisters are pretty similar but yet different at the same time.

Margaret: Older sister who is so tired of being the older and responsible one that she lashes out. It is completely clear from her way of speaking that she hates being in the stereotypes. She prefers to be on her own terms because she would usually find other's terms suffocating and binding to her own growth. Which is completely understandable considering I find myself a lot like her. Except for the fact I prefer staying up late at night because mornings here are crazier than Indian fish markets on a Sunday. Margaret would literally fistfight God if she had to.

Annalie: Introverted, shy, soft spoken, everything her sister is not. She just wants to be peaceful and avoid trouble. Somehow, sometimes, well, to be honest, in the rarest of times I'll prefer peace otherwise it's fistfighting God basically. But yeah, she actually does everything that Margaret does not, listen to people, help them and not fight. 

While Annalie and Margaret are certainly different on an innumerable number of levels, I couldn't help but find similarities between the two. Both of them are headstrong, stubborn and won't move from their ideals no matter what. And both of them are always there for one another, I think that's sweet.

I do feel like there could have been more sister to sister bonding moments? This does seem lacking in my opinion.

Daniel: I think there could have been more about him other than being Mr Bakersfield's grandson? And about the Annalie situation, I feel like that could have been handled better.

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: 8/10, it's pretty interesting if I may say so.

4. Intellectual Depth: The main point of this is racism and how one would approach it. Margaret and Annalie become the representatives of the two different ways of dealing with racism. Margaret denotes fighting against it, going to the bottom of it and figuring out justice because it's wrong. Annalie depicts the other side, who do not want to get into trouble and just want to lead life smoothly. They want to mark the racist incident against them as a minor discomfort and move on because they don't want to get into trouble. Both sides are equally fair considering people are really mean and always single out people who are different from the norm. Norm being the simple majority. If someone's not like them, they'll simply single that person out and make their life hell. One could either fight with it, or blend in the background to avoid trouble, both ways is fair.

5. Plot Twists: The plot twist of Daniel actually liking Annalie did come off quite as a shocker to me because they didn't spend that much of time together in the book, or I couldn't feel as strong a chemistry between them. Well neither did I find something between Thom and Annalie, but I think that was meant to be a point in the story. But I didn't actually expect to like, Daniel fall for Annalie even though they were like on good terms due to Mr Bakersfield. It just seemed too short a time for me. 

6. Plot: The writing style is quite similar to Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi, and the plot is also quite similar to it. It's about two sisters who couldn't be more different from one another and aren't on the best of terms. It would be better if one avoided the other. But when one falls in trouble, the other always comes to the rescue. There's banter, shouting, quarrelling, and yet, the sisters are always together fighting their way out of stuff in their own way. I love how none of the sisters meddle into the other's affairs and I really love how the two sort their issues alone without anyone's help. It's really nice to see the issues being solved or else that would be a major non like  from me.

OVERALL, A NICE READ, I need more books like this. MOAAAAAR.