Review of Robyn Schneider's 'The Beginning of Everything'

Title: The Beginning of Everything

Author: Robyn Schneider

Publication Date: August 27, 2013

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Synopsis:

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.

No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.

But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes? 

Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.

 

My Review: 
 

This book was kind of amazing. The moment I finished I wanted to start all over again, which is not a common thing for me. Pretty much everything about this book is perfection. 

This is the story of Ezra who is a popular tennis player in his high school. Ezra ends up permanently injured due to a car accident and is unable to play tennis. This change in his life messes with his head and makes him question his identity. He decides that he can't just hang out with his old friends and pretend nothing has changed. He ends up making a new group of nerdy-ish friends and meets a beautiful, unique girl. These new friends and the new girl end up changing his life and opening his eyes to a lot of amazing things in life, and Ezra eventually finds who he is supposed to be. 

Robyn Schneider is officially one of my favorite writers. Her writing is flawless. The story she created is well-paced and so amazingly witty and creative. This book had me laughing hysterically, thinking about life, and crying all at the same time. It's a rare writer that can accomplish such a feat.  

This is totally random, but this book also introduced me to geocaching. How have I never heard of this?!? For those who don't know, geocaching is basically real life treasure hunting. There are millions of geocaches hidden world-wide and they are little boxes of random trinkets. You can take one thing as long as you leave one thing. This whole concept blew my mind. 

I suppose I should probably talk about how much I loved the characters in this book. Ezra is awesome. He's an original truth seeker trying to find his place in the world and trying to figure out who he really is. Cassidy, the new girl and Ezra's love interest, is a mystery. She's unique, smart, and hilarious; but clearly has a dark secret from her past she's trying to deal with. These characters, together, are exactly what each other need at the moment in time in this book. 

A big concept in this story is that there is one big, life-changing moment in everyone's lives that everything they become can be traced back to. It can be a terrible moment or an amazing moment, but ultimately the moment changes everything. For Ezra it was the car crash that injured him. Cassidy has a moment as well, but I'm not going to spoil it for you. I absolutely love this concept. It made me think about my own life. I love any book that can make me take a step back and look at the world and life in a different way. 

This book is not only thought provoking and interesting as hell, but it also is entertaining and hilarious. This book really had it all for me. It's one of those situations where it's hard for me to pick apart exactly what I loved about it because everything about it works together as a perfect whole. This book is in my top five books of the year for sure. Seriously, just read it!!

My Rating: