So Much Closer- Book Review

                                                  SO MUCH CLOSER- By Susane Colastani 

     Brooke Greene has been crushing on Scott Abrams for as long as she can remember. However, when Brooke finally is just about to ask Scott out, she finds out that he’s moving to New York City. In just a short week Brooke convinced her mom to let her move to New York City for her senior year of high school, where her dad lives, saying the schools there will challenge her at the right level. So, Brooke packs up her life in South New Jersey after three short months of summer break, and heads on down to New York City. On the first day of school Brooke gets sucked into being a tutor for a fellow senior student with special needs.  Her genius IQ is shown not at all shown from her school grades, but from her testing scores. However, by the end of the day she found Scott and begins to try to become friends with him. Later that afternoon she begins as a general tutor for a boy named John with  the high-functioning mental disorder of dysgraphia. After becoming good friends with Scott, Brooke stumbles upon him with his girlfriend, Leslie, whom she had no idea about. Brooke begins hanging out more with the girl who persuaded her to tutor, Sadie, after finding out this news. Soon after, though, Brooke decides to keep being good friends with Scott, hoping he’ll soon break up with Leslie, his girlfriend who always looks like she just stepped out of Teen Vogue. 

    Problems arise when Brooke's dad is always out working, and if he is home, he’s on his laptop, talking to her about as much as you talk to that shy kid in class.  In the back of her mind Brooke knows that moving to New York was a huge mistake, but convinces herself it will all pay off when Scott falls in love with her. Fortunately for Brooke, Scott ends things with Leslie and Brooke decides to tell him what she’s been hiding all along- the fact that she moved to New York City just to be with him. He’s completely awestruck, and gives Brooke the most wonderful kiss she’s ever had. Later that evening, Brooke is still in a complete state of wonder-struck over finally being able to be with the boy she’s loved forever. John, the boy she tutors, begins acting out  once he finds out about Brooke and Scott, while Brooke is completely oblivious to him being in love with her. Brooke, however, soon comes to the conclusion after about a month that Scott is just in this relationship for physical things, and may think that making out will fix things verses talking about them. Brooke then does the hardest thing she’s ever done: she breaks up with the boy she’s always dreamed of. Shortly after this breakup Brooke realizes something. If someone makes you feel comfortable and is nothing but sweet to you, never let them go, therefore, she ends up with John, the boy who’s been fully in love with her since day one.

     Brooke is a girl of average height at 5’ 6’’ with golden, flowing light brown hair and deep, intense brown eyes. Brooke is an extremely intelligent seventeen year old who doesn't  put forth any effort into school and her grades. Her test scores skyrocket up, but her grades are very, very low, basically at a failing level. A quote from the book supporting this analysis is when Brooke is thinking: “Is this the part where I’m supposed to be surprised? Because I've heard it all before. I still don’t care.” This thought occurs to her after  her calculus teacher, Mr. Peterson, says from her IQ test score that she excels in all subjects by a lot. This quote supports my analysis because it portrays how Brooke doesn't care or put effort into school work when she can easily highly excel at it, if she wants to.  Brooke lived in South New Jersey, then moved to New York City when she found out her crush was moving there.

     Brooke can be quite oblivious at times, such as during the four months John, the boy she tutored, was completely in love with her, before she realized over the winter. Brooke is definitely a dreamer, constantly daydreaming about her crush, Scott Abrams, just about all the time. Brooke is also a hopeless romantic; when she begins going out with Scott, she is just hopelessly in love, and never ever imagines that it could someday end. This analysis can be supported by this quote from Brooke: “That’s how I know Scott and I are meant to be together. I've never been so sure of anything in my entire life.” However, being that Brooke is a very intelligent girl, she’s smart enough to come to the sad, unfortunate realization that Scott is only in it for physical things and never made her feel fully comfortable; she always felt overwhelmed whenever she was around him, likely due to crushing on him for so long before and not entirely being able to believe that they’re a couple. A quote to support this analysis is when Brooke is thinking to herself after Scott asks if they can just keep things fun:  “It’s so tempting to say yes, to be with him however he wants me to be. But I've been playing this whole time. I desperately want to be that girl who can have fun city nights with a boy she loves and not want anything more. Ever since Scott kissed me, I've been trying to be that girl. I’m just not her. If Scott and I can’t be together the way I know we should be in my heart, then I can’t do this anymore.” Another quote to support how overwhelmed she feels is this one, from Brooke: “Scott’s room has a powerful effect on me. Just going inside triggers this overwhelming anticipation. Every time I come over here, It’s like I still can’t believe I’m finally here.” These quotes support my analysis because Brooke is always overwhelmed around Scott, and has always been desperately trying to be someone she’s just truly not.

       A major theme in So Much Closer is the fact that sometimes the thing you wish for so badly doesn't always turn out and can disappoint you once you get it. An example supporting this theme is the blatant fact that Brooke moved to an entirely new city, receiving an entirely different life, just for one boy that turned out to disappoint her once she ‘had him’. An example from the book that supports this theme of things not always being what they seem to be, is this quote from Brooke: “What I’m craving even more is a home-cooked meal. Missing Mom’s cooking is the last thing I expected to be doing, but there you go. Takeout was fun for a while. Now it’s sort of sad.” This quote from Brooke portrays the theme of things not always being what they seem because this quote describes how Brooke thought having takeout all the time would be so fun and awesome, but she later realizes she misses what she had before, and is disappointed with what she has now. Another quote from Brooke portraying this theme is this one:  I can’t remember the last time he talked about anything serious. But it’s not like we’re going to break up. I didn't move all the way here for things to not work out. I've loved Scott for so long. We just can’t go on like this.” This quote portrays the major theme of things not always being as great as they may seem because Brooke picked up and moved to New York thinking everything would just be perfect, and her and Scott would fall in love. However, she’s now beginning to realize that Scott may not be how she always dreamed he’d be, before she was dating him. These examples portray the theme of everything not always being exactly what it seems.

   I can really relate the theme of things not always being what they seem to my own life in many ways. It’s a very true, realistic theme that everyone is guilty of experiencing. An example of a time I've experienced it is when I was going into 7^th grade, I thought private school would be so amazing and perfect and way better than public school. I tried it out for half the school year and realized it wasn't what it seemed at all. There were only five students and the education wasn't as good as I thought it would be, which of course disappointed me. The example shown explains one way I can relate the theme of everything not always being quite what it seems to my life.

    This book greatly appealed to me because of how true and raw it is. Although it’s a fictional book, it could easily be the story of a real nonfiction person, because it’s not some totally unrealistic, fantasy story that could never actually happen. I enjoy reading books about real life things, rather than unrealistic stories that are so far from real life. I would recommend it to people who like reading about life lessons and  topics that can easily be related to, because this book is full of them. Another reason I’d recommend So much Closer is because it’s an easy read- it’s not hard to follow, and you don’t get bored with the story line. These reasons are why the book So Much Closer appealed to me and why I’d recommend it to others.       

Want to find out more about the author, Susane Colastani? Click this link!- http://www.susanecolasanti.com/books.html

Want to purchase this book? Click here!- http://www.amazon.com/So-Much-Closer-Susane-Colasanti/dp/0142421146/ref=la_B001JSE5XA_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1353995578&sr=1-4