Goodreads Synopsis
After Kyle loses his childhood sweetheart, Alice Lynam, he spends two years trying to bury his past and move on with his life. On his twenty-first birthday, he receives Alice’s notebook and discovers that two pages are missing. Kyle is forced to revisit his past and realises that perhaps his life isn’t as coincidental as it seems.
I received this book from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book focuses more on Alice and Sophia even though the synopsis leads you to believe that it’s all about Kyle and him getting over his grief. Kyle is distraught after Alice dies and it tears him up so much inside it’s almost impossible for him to seem like anything but a robot programmed to go on with daily life just enough for people to think that he’s okay.
All his friends keep trying to get him to at least admit that he’s going through a tough time but he swears up and down that he’s okay. He meets Sophia who gets him to show an interest in something that’s not what his father wants him to do. He doesn’t admit to this interest either because…yep, you guest it, it reminds him of Alice.
Seeing that she’s getting him to open up, Sophia decides to keep him talking about this topic that seems to light up something within him and before he knows it, he’s willingly coming to terms with what happened and not hiding from his feelings anymore.
The synopsis for this story did really intrigue me but as I said, it’s slightly misleading because the book is not all about Kyle. There are many other factors that play a part. There are dimensions, different worlds, a universe that is ruled by the belief of Positivity and how if Negativity takes a hold, it’ll wear a person down and if they let it…it’ll tear down everything in its path. I’m glad I didn’t pass up the opportunity because once I allowed myself to get into this story, I found myself quite intrigued and eager to find out more.
Characters: I liked how Sophia was open to everything she was. It’s so rare to see a character that seems constantly content, no hate whatsoever. It wasn’t like she was positive all the time. I think with her knowing what negativity looked like, she understood the dangers that it posed and knew to stay out of its way.
Kyle was extremely skeptic at first but it was understandable. It was why Sophia and her family kept their abilities to see the negativity around people- see outside of the box almost- a secret. What I did like about the beginning of the story is that it showed how grief can take over and consume you. It wasn’t sugar coated and I admired Kyle for how strong he was being because it could have gotten a lot worse.
Likes: I loved the plot as well as the concept of this book. It was fast paced most of the time although it didn’t grip my attention from the very beginning. The writing was intriguing and the way the author went about telling the story was really good.
Overall Thoughts: The seemingly rebellious acts made me really hope that things would turn out okay in the end. Sometimes it’s good to take charge and decided what you want from life. This book really made me excited for what else this author can come up with. I took Business at school but I’ve always enjoyed Physics so this book really took me back.
Read: 9 July 2016
Rating: ★★★★
Publication Date: 27 January 2016
Publisher: Troubador
Link to Author’s Goodreads Page: Caitlin Lynagh
Diminishing Thoughts 