Love and the Sea and Everything in Between by Brian McBride Review

Love and the Sea and Everything in Between by Brian McBride is not for the faint of heart. It deals with very difficult subjects, but it does so wonderfully.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead! And mentions of suicide, depression, and assault.

Let’s start with characters, whom I loved. Adam and Liz weren’t perfect. They made mistakes, and they hurt each other because they were hurting themselves. The reader really feels as if they know Adam and Liz.

I do wish we could have had a bit more exploration of Jeremiah and Oliver, though. Though the letter that Jeremiah gives to Adam towards the end does give a lot more insight into his character, we may have been able to understand his and Adam’s fallout better and sooner in the story, which may have made his confrontation with Liz a bit more emotional. (Though that scene was very emotional; it was one of my favorite scenes.)

The setting was also extremely vibrant. Although I’ll admit that I’ve never been to San Francisco, it’s one of my favorite cities because of the architecture. I got such great vibes from all the settings, which was fantastic. I feel as if character-driven books seem to skimp on setting, but McBride did not sacrifice surroundings for his characters.

But my favorite thing about LATSAEIB was its language. McBride borders on poetry with his prose. Both Adam and Liz have these flowing inner monologues with wonderful vocabulary, clever metaphors, and excellent quotes. He is compelling without being melodramatic.

My only problem with this book was that, at times (not consistently), I felt that mental illness was just a bit romanticized. I find this problem with a lot of books, and while LATSAEIB was nowhere near the biggest offender, it did become a little suspicious. I think this may be partly because of McBride’s poetic nature, so, therefore, I don’t think it was intentional. But it certainly is something to watch out for.

But, with that in mind, it really does deal with these issues sensitively without sugarcoating anything, which is a great quality for a book to have.

All in all, LATSAEIB is definitely worth a read.

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