In Honor by Jessi Kirby Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: May 14th 2013
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A devastating loss leads to an unexpected road trip in what Sarah Ockler calls a “beautiful, engaging journey with heart, humor, and just a pinch of Texas sass.”Three days after learning of her brother Finn’s death, Honor receives his last letter from Iraq. Devastated, she interprets his note as a final request and spontaneously sets off to California to fulfill it. At the last minute, she’s joined by Rusty, Finn’s former best friend. Rusty is the last person Honor wants to be with—he’s cocky and obnoxious, just like Honor remembers, and she hasn’t forgiven him for turning his back on Finn when he enlisted. But as they cover the dusty miles together in Finn’s beloved 1967 Chevy Impala, long-held resentments begin to fade, and Honor and Rusty struggle to come to terms with the loss they share. As their memories of Finn merge to create a new portrait, Honor’s eyes are opened to a side of her brother she never knew—a side that shows her the true meaning of love and sacrifice.
In Honor broke my heart right from the very beginning. Honor and Rusty were so completely broken by Finn’s death that it made me so unbelievably sad for them. Grief and loss is a terrible thing and neither knew what to do with it. Not to mention the fact that there was a lot of resentment between the two of them without either knowing what the other was feeling. The story was real and emotional and completely heart wrenching, but utterly fantastic.
In Honor is about the death of Honor’s brother Finn. Well not really his death, but more how his sister Honor, who Finn essentially helped raise when their parents died, and his best friend Rusty who had a falling out with Finn before he left for the Marines, dealt with the grief of his loss. When Honor gets an idea to take a road trip to see a singer her brother had gotten her tickets to and somehow Rusty ends up on the journey, the two of them discover that sometimes it’s best not to deal with grief alone. As they drive the open road the see what is really there right in front of them and that it’s okay to be sad and to move on.
Honor made this book for me right from the start. I connected with her emotions and how she was reacting to things. I understood her from the get go so it was easy to like her and what great things for her. She even made me teary-eyed at the very beginning which is hard to do with me in a book when I barely know the characters. But I also really liked Rusty once you got past the hurt and the lashing out. We didn’t know his story or what truly happened between him and Finn until much farther in the book, but it didn’t matter because you could still feel his pain and you could sense his pain was less when it was just him and Honor driving in the Impala. The two of them played off each other really well. And as everything from the past came forward they both dealt with their emotions in a way you would expect from two broken people that felt like they were missing a piece of themselves. Everything just kind of clicked for me.
Definitely my fave Jessi Kirby book. It had all the elements of a great book and kept me reading and wanting to just give the characters a hug. I had been told for a while now to read this marvelous book and I’m so happy I listened. Fabulous!
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