Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published: June 6th 2017
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Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.
Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore.
As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.
Confession: The subject matter for Words in Deep Blue made me cringe when I read the description. People writing in books? SAY WHAT??!!?? That sounds blasphemous. But actually it was the perfect complement to Cath Crowley’s book about putting yourself back together when you think you will be broken forever.
I guess that was the beauty of Words in Deep Blue. Rachel was completely broken. She was gutted after the loss of her brother and doesn’t really know how she fits in the world anymore. All of a sudden she finds herself back in the past she left behind and around the guy that broke her heart, Henry, her best friend. Slowly Rachel starts to put her fragmented heart and soul together with the help of people that were once so important to her and I just loved that. I loved seeing her and Henry get back to a place that was theirs and figure out what the actually mean to each other.
And I have to say I loved the humor Henry brought to the story. Straight up, he was an idiot. He was just so stupid about so many things and it killed me. But not in an annoying way. He was just so clueless about Rachel and things he knew nothing about. He was sweet and charming and sincere. I loved him. But man oh man he was so so clueless. He was Rachel’s perfect counterpart.
Really I can’t say anything else about this book other than it is fantastic. There has to be something in the water in Australia. I mean there is no way Aussie authors can be this good right?? Words in Deep Blue is my 3rd Cath Crowley 5 star book and every time I finish one of her masterpieces I wonder just how she does it. Make sure this gem is on your TBR.
I totally agree about Australian authors–talk about a treasure. I enjoyed this one a lot and it’s been growing on me even more although I think A Little Wanting Song and Graffiti Moon may still rate higher in terms of favorites. I thought the way the writing in books was integrated into the story was interesting and I’m very curious to see how that is handled in the formatting for finished copies too.