Review: I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

What: I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Who: Scholastic Australia

When: 2015

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Scholastic Australia for review.

Emily Bell believes in destiny. To her, being forced to sing a solo in the church choir—despite her average voice—is fate: because it’s while she’s singing that she first sees Sam. At first sight, they are connected.

Sam Border wishes he could escape, but there’s nowhere for him to run. He and his little brother, Riddle, have spent their entire lives constantly uprooted by their unstable father. That is, until Sam sees Emily. That’s when everything changes.

As Sam and Riddle are welcomed into the Bells’ lives, they witness the warmth and protection of a family for the first time. But when tragedy strikes, they’re left fighting for survival in the desolate wilderness, and wondering if they’ll ever find a place where they can belong. Beautifully written and emotionally profound, I’ll Be There is a gripping story that explores the complexities of teenage passions, friendships, and loyalties.

I’m going to be completely honest here and say that I nearly did not finish I’ll Be There. I got to about 80 pages, and I wasn’t a fan of anything that had happened, or was happening, in the book. I wasn’t huge on the writing style, the characters and how very ~special~ they were, or the fact that there seemed to be no plot and very little dialogue.

But then I thought: Chiara, give this book a chance. Get to maybe 100 pages, and THEN decide if you really want to put it down. Because there was still a little something that was drawing me back to this book.

So I kept reading, and I finished the book in one sitting after those initial 80 pages. I ended up quite liking I’ll Be There, and here are the reasons why:

1 – Sam. Sam was adorable. I thought he was quite likeable before I ended up liking this book, and even more so when I DID end up liking this book. He doesn’t know a lot of things because he’s never been to school beyond grade two, and his not-knowing-ness endeared me to him a lot. And his love for his little brother, Riddle. How much he loved him just hit me right in the feels.

2 – Riddle. Riddle was eccentric and loveable and completely took care of Sam when a certain something happened in this book. And they get parted at one point, and Riddle just completely shuts down because he thinks Sam is dead. And it just broke my heart.

That’s it, really. I quite liked Emily, who is Sam’s love interest, but I didn’t feel any real connection to her. I like her mother more, to be honest. The way she fell in love with Riddle and saw him as her own son really endeared me to her.

But there are a few things that kept me from really liking this book instead of just plain liking it, and here they are:

1 – Bobby. I really just did not get his character in the novel. Sure, we needed the truth about Sam and his family to come out – but did it need to be at the hands of this incredibly creepy stalker guy? Whenever Bobby’s parts arrived in I’ll Be There, I was just groaning and rolling my eyes because I could not care LESS about him and whatever creepy shit he was getting up to. Could not care at all.

2 – The insight into random characters that weren’t really characters. Do I need to know that the cleaning lady who discovers Sam’s dad’s stolen jewellery really liked the original owner’s Christmas tree pin? Do I need to know that the cyclist who finds Sam’s dad started out riding to and from university? No. I really don’t. This is filler information that did not assist the story progression at all, and I just wasn’t a fan.

3 – The lack of dialogue and interaction. Sam and Emily clearly care for each other but throughout the book they spoke about five sentences to each other. We know they hung out, but we never actually get to READ about them hanging out and becoming close. We’re just told, and we’re supposed to jump aboard that ship. I need a little more relationship development than that.

So there you go. I am glad I ended up finishing I’ll Be There because Sam and Riddle are characters that I really enjoyed reading about, and came to care a lot for by the end (I got teary at a few parts, so you can really tell I cared!). Unfortunately, there were also aspects I wasn’t a huge fan of, that resulted in I’ll Be There being a book that I simply liked.

© 2015, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.