Reading Under the Willow Tree

For this review and more visit my blog

For such a short book Absent sure does pack a punch. This is one of the most thoughtful YA books I have come across lately and I was pretty impressed by it.

I really liked the storyline we have seen ghosts done time and time again in YA but not quite like this. It was fairly light-hearted yet managed to tackle some pretty tough subjects like death, friendship, bullying, drug use, murder, sexuality, suicide and grief. It also looks at social labelling and the social and emotional effects it has on teens.
These subjects are treated with real respect by the author and not once does this book sound preachy.

The subtlety of this book is down to the writing of Katie Williams. She writes beautifully with real emotional depth and it is easy to get lost in her world. I liked that this book didn’t focus on a romance it wasn’t a teen drama but a journey of self-discovery. She handled everything so well and I found parts of this very emotional.

Paige is an awesome character, she is not perfect but that was what made her so great. She acknowledges the worse parts of herself and the mistakes she had made in the past. The other characters were also great especially Evan whose story I found especially touching, particularly at the end.

My one issue was the ending. Something happens right at the end that I didn’t quite understand and I would have liked a little more elaboration. Other than that I was super impressed with Absent, it was short, interesting and thought provoking.


The publisher provided me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review