When You Reach Me

by Rebecca Stead

𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚?

𝙄 𝙣𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙟𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙖 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧.

𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙚.

SYNOPSIS

Miranda’s life is perfectly normal. There’s the small slightly battered apartment she lives at with her mom, her best friend Sal since childhood right downstairs—the local store with the too-small strawberries, school as the usual & the seemingly crazy but harmless Laughing Man at the corner of the drive.

And then the notes arrive. Scrawled on crispy bits of paper addressed to Miranda, the mysterious writer seemingly makes no immediate sense, but clearly warns of a tragedy only Miranda can help to prevent—if she writes the stranger a letter.

When Sal gets punched in the stomach one day for no apparent reason, a chain of events begin happening one after the other, disrupting Miranda’s world until she’s forced to face the evident truth—whoever is reaching out to her has not been lying & she must decide whether to play her part before it’s all too late.

REVIEW

This is one of the stories where you honestly do not know where the plot is going to take you—with the daily & seemingly uneventful occurrences in each chapter, I wasn’t able to predict the direction of the story & that just makes the overall experience entirely captivating.

I loved how Miranda came to realize not only the importance of family, but to learn to appreciate & express in return the gratitude & love she was constantly shown throughout the story. By finding her place amongst true friends who sincerely care about one another, she was also able to forgive their past misgivings & move their friendship to another level.

My favorite though, was how the author intercepted the concept of time traveling, the different perspectives of the matter, with the mysterious notes appearing out of nowhere & blended it so well with the storyline, while keeping it simple, enjoyable & thoroughly moving.

Overall a beautifully moving & fascinating story all can enjoy.