TL;DR: This was such a painful read to get through. It leaves you feeling a bit helpless as you get a front-row seat to Amelie losing herself to something toxic and retracing her steps to find herself again. This is such an important story and I’m so glad that it exists, especially for young readers, as Bourne does a great job exploring what it means to be in healthy and unhealthy relationships and how to care for yourself in the aftermath. This tackles dark and heavy events that can be triggering so please do check content warnings before reading.

I’ve had this book on my TBR for a very long time because I always knew that I would need to gear myself up emotionally to read it. Just from the title, you know you’re being set up for a sad-time read but I don’t think I expected just how full of anguish it would be. Bourne captures the essence of teenhood perfectly through Amelie. Her turbulent emotions were so distinct and it was easy to get swept up in the extremes of all her feelings. As someone who moved many times during my schooling years, I know how hard it is to say goodbye to friends and to be the “new kid” (yet again). As a reader, you’re excited for Amelie as she gets excited about making new friends and then, there he is, and once Reese enters the picture nothing will ever be the same as it was.

I don’t think I have the words to describe how painfully uncomfortable and angering it was to read this book. It was so difficult to see Amelie constantly ignore red flags because of how amazing it feels to be cherished and “loved” by someone like Reese—he’s popular, good-looking, and disarmingly charming. Despite not being the targeted audience of this book, it’s no less impactful or important because sadly, this is probably something a lot of people—both men, women, young, and old—may experience, have experienced or know someone who has been through it. In ways, it’s terrifyingly relatable and I think that’s what also makes this story more devastating. Bourne handles sensitive topics very well and writes about them in a way that is easy for readers of any age to grasp.

That being said, perhaps it was also this simplicity of the writing that made it difficult for me to fully connect to the story. I expected to be overwhelmed by emotions reading this and although I was moved by it and hurt for Amelie, it didn’t quite connect with me in the way I thought it would. Whether my brain numbed itself the more I read or I’d built my expectations up too high over the years, I think this is more of a “me thing” and not the book’s fault. Towards the end, I found the endless crying and constant breaking down into tears to be very emotionally taxing and I think by that point my whole being was numb from this experience (not necessarily in a bad way, it was just a lot to take in).

Overall, I’m glad to have finally read this. I see why everyone talked about it when it came out and I appreciate how well Bourne wrote this story. I know if my younger self read this, it would’ve turned me into a total emotional wreck! As difficult as these topics and events are, I do think it’s an important read for young readers because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in the butterflies, attention and the highs of what you think love is, only for it to blind you from someone’s ugly.

Have you read The Places I’ve Cried in Public or is it on your TBR?

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