The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

 

This story is a typical story that's been done before multiple times, boy meets girl, fall for her, they get together, something happens that causes them to break up, and in the end they either get back together or they don't. This story is about Ezra Faulkner who was once the golden boy of his high school, a jock with the popular girlfriend, friends, and admirers. Until. an accident happens that shatters his leg changes everything. Now, in his senior year, Ezra learns to become friends with different people, one of them being Cassidy Thorpe. Now, when i was first reading this book, i liked Ezra's character and the side characters too, his ex best friend, Toby, the people on his debate team. Ezra grew throughout the book from being used to doing what people expected him too to focusing on himself and what he feels he should do. However, Cassidy is by definition, the manic pixie dream girl that is full of life and inspires you with everything that she does, and then she leaves. I didn't get Cassidy's character even in the beginning because she was always moody, quoting something from a poem,book, or play, and pushing on her opinions on Ezra. We find out why she did all this in the end. But, it doesn't add up and then she says to Ezra that she's not the reason why he changed, because he decided to change before he even met her. While this is true, i couldn't really grasp this idea because it was thrown at the very end, instead of seeing it gradually happen throughout the book, then it would have gotten a better impact. Also, the jocks were one dimentional, even his ex Charlotte, she played the typical mean cheerleader who just had to be mean. While this book was ok, there were parts that i did like, Toby's one liners and his friendship with Ezra, Cooper the dog, Phoebe was a great minor character, there is mention of her being in unheathly realtionship with Luke, it's glossed over which i didn't like. It would have been great to see how she turned out even if she was minor. Finally, the ending was realistic because it shows that not all relationships work out, although i still don't understand the coincidence that the person who ran Ezra was in any way connected to Cassidy. Also, the part where Cassidy says, " I see him dead in you" does not make sense because yea he ran Ezra over but he didn't die, he died four days later. I felt more sad for Cooper, the dog at the end, then the relationship, that's saying it all. I do wish Toby and Phoebe can get their own stories, i really liked them as side characters. :)
btw  i gave this book 3 stars.