Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook

Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook

Review of Nobody But Us

Title & Author:
Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook
Publisher:
HarperTeen
Publication Date:
January 29, 2013
Pages:
272
Source:
ARC from Publisher

Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger….

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough.

Nobody But Us, told in alternating perspectives from Will and Zoe, is an unflinching novel, in turns heartbreaking and hopeful, about survival, choices, and love…and how having love doesn’t always mean that you get a happy ending. Described as “beautiful, heartbreaking, and exhilarating” by Kody Keplinger, author of The DUFF, Nobody But Us will prove irresistible to fans of Nina Lacour, Jenny Han, and Sara Zarr. – Goodreads

I loved Nobody But Us by Kristin Halbrook. Not only did I think the story was an amazingly well-done rollercoaster of events and emotions, I thought the characters were just so heart-wrenching and real.

I just can’t even with Zoe and Will. They broke me in all the right ways. Kristin Halbrook really knows how to throw her punches with her characters and build up backstory. Neither of them come from a happy background and I just think that really showed in their personality and actions. If I only knew Zoe and Will as a spectator, I could only see that they were really unhealthy for each other and the relationship was not the best, but knowing their story and reading their POVs, their dependency and actions made way more sense to me. I

I also thought Kristin Halbrook did excellent job with Will’s point of view. It’s not always easy to write a boy point of view, I think, but Will felt very real and never like a girl masquerading as a boy.

The story of Nobody But Us was such an intense ride. Zoe and Will had their ups and downs – and there were a lot of downs. But I was just with them all the way – I felt so sorry for Zoe and Will and watching them make the wrong choice nearly every single time was so hard to take. One of the great things Kristin Halbrook was able to do was make me hope for a better fate for Zoe and Will, even though realistically I knew nothing would go well. It was definitely an odd combination of dread and hope while reading Nobody But Us.

The ending Nobody But Us was unexpectedly expected, if that makes sense. Like I said, Kristin Halbrook does not hesitate with the punches. While I had an inkling the ending would end up like it did, it was still so shocking for me – I never expected it to actually happen. The ending is something I think it takes a lot of balls to do and I really applaud Kristin Halbrook for that.

Essentially – Nobody But Us is a debut that shocked me, moved me, and broke me. I cannot wait to get my hands on anything Kristin Halbrook ever writes because she doesn’t shy away from the tough issues, and I love that. Nobody But Us is a heartbreaking story with beautifully broken characters and an ending that shook me to my very core. I highly recommend Nobody But Us to lovers of contemporary and heartbreaking stories. Nobody But Us is filled with sadness and intense situations, but even through it all, there’s still that inkling of hope that stuck with me while reading Zoe and Will’s story.

While you’re here, you can subscribe to my feed :)