Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Title: Becoming Chloe


Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde


Summary:

Meet Jordy. He’s on his own in New York City. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it’s been working fine.


Until this girl comes along. She’s 18 and blond and pretty–her world should be perfect. But she’s seen things no one should ever see in their whole life–the kind of things that break a person. She doesn’t seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she doesn’t know a whole lot. Only sometimes she does.


The one thing she knows for sure is that the world is an ugly place. Now her life may depend on Jordy proving her wrong. So they hit the road to discover the truth–and there’s no going back from what they find out.


This deeply felt, redemptive novel reveals both the dark corners and hidden joys of life’s journey–and the remarkable resilience of the human soul.

Rating: 4/5


Good:

Once again, Catherine Ryan Hyde brought a book that was intriguing from the very first page. Starting off with two young people, living alone in a cellar, I found myself drawn in by Chloe's character. In a way, she reminded me of Stargirl from Jerry Spinelli's amazing book. I'm not even quite sure why.


Throughout Chloe and Jordy's travels, I found myself wishing that I were there seeing the things they were seeing, talking to the people they were talking to... I wanted to step into the book and become Chloe, or some version of her, and I thought it was great that I could connect to the book on that kind of level.

Bad:

I can't really pinpoint exactly why this book didn't amaze me as much as The Day I Killed James. The story line was just as unique, the characters were just as well developed... I think it has to do with the unbelievability, at least from my pessimistic point of view. I can relate to Chloe in the beginning because I, like her, have a hard time believing that the world is really all that beautiful... so I also have a hard time imagining all the nice people, all the beautiful views, and just the good things that happened. This isn't really a flaw with the book, but more a character flaw of mine that kept me from enjoying it as much as I should have.