THE S WORD by Chelsea Pitcher_Review

Review of The S Word by Chelsea Pitcher

5 stars

I reviewed a complimentary e-book copy via NetGalley.

“The S Word” was truly a sleeper for me. I selected it to read for review because of the suicide of the central character (Lizzie is central, even though she is already deceased at the book’s commencement). I expected a too-precious high-school elitism. That’s not at all what I found: I was enraptured immediately, and stayed enraptured throughout the book. As soon as I finished, I wanted to do it all again. Debut author Chelsea Pitcher draws characters so finely, so deeply, it’s as if we stood inside them and looked out through their eyes. She uses a rather unusual method to delineate character: we have a narrator in first-person, Angelina aka Angie, and we see as she sees, except that Angie likes to conceal a lot from others and from herself; then we also see through the eyes of Lizzie’s diary, sections of which are interspersed throughout the narrative.

Amazing depths are probed in this novel, and I refuse to give anything away. If you care at all about characterizations, suspenseful plotting, or issues that are very real and very potent, please do yourself a favour and read this incredibly special book. I’d like to give it about 28 stars, because 5 stars is just not enough.