Amelia Unabridged

 Amelia Unabridged
Ashley Schumacher
304 pages
Wednesday Books, 2021

From Goodreads: Eighteen-year-old Amelia Griffin is obsessed with the famous Orman Chronicles, written by the young and reclusive prodigy N. E. Endsley. They’re the books that brought her and her best friend Jenna together after Amelia’s father left and her family imploded. So when Amelia and Jenna get the opportunity to attend a book festival with Endsley in attendance, Amelia is ecstatic. It’s the perfect way to start off their last summer before college.

In a heartbeat, everything goes horribly wrong. When Jenna gets a chance to meet the author and Amelia doesn’t, the two have a blowout fight like they’ve never experienced. And before Amelia has a chance to mend things, Jenna is killed in a freak car accident. Grief-stricken, and without her best friend to guide her, Amelia questions everything she had planned for the future.

When a mysterious, rare edition of the Orman Chronicles arrives, Amelia is convinced that it somehow came from Jenna. Tracking the book to an obscure but enchanting bookstore in Michigan, Amelia is shocked to find herself face-to-face with the enigmatic and handsome N. E. Endsley himself, the reason for Amelia’s and Jenna’s fight and perhaps the clue to what Jenna wanted to tell her all along.

I'm not sure I have the words to convey how absolutely beautiful this book from debut author Amy Schumacher is. Amelia Unabridged wormed its way into my heart from the very beginning and by the end I find it situated in there so firmly, I don't think I will ever forget this gorgeous novel.

Take a look at the cover for a moment. The hand drawn image of a young woman, Amelia, screams "take me seriously," and the illustrations of a whale and foliage suggest a charm within the pages. The colors are dark and cool, suggesting a melancholy throughout the pages, but the colors surrounding the couple sharing a book together are warm and inviting, maybe even hopeful in the face of the darkness that surrounds them. Now read the description of the book again. Grief stricken at the death of her best friend, Amelia goes on a quest to find the source of special edition of the book they both loved, and finds herself in front of the young author himself. My first impression before even reading the book was that they didn't match very well but after reading, they do, they do! 

In the hands of a lesser author this book could have easily disintegrated into something campy and twee. Something I've read dozens of times before, and despite enjoying them very much while reading, didn't stay in my memory even a few months later. Somehow Schumacher manages to create something so beautiful, raw, and realistic here that I'm in awe. According to her bio on Goodreads, she has a degree in creative writing but I think she has a way with crafting words that is rare, you either have it or you don't. Regardless of how she does it, she's on my must read list now.

Amelia's heartbreak is so raw and realistic I really felt for her. Her best friend Jenna is her anchor in a disrupted world where her father leaves and her mother stops caring, so losing that turns her entire life upside down. The timing makes it worse, on the cusp of starting college Amelia only has the summer months to figure out how to live life without Jenna. Her spur of the moment trip to Michigan is so unlike Jenna but is the start on her path to finding her true self. Enter N.E. Endsley. Some might argue that their dependence on each other is unhealthy and I agree, but don't hold that against the author because that is realistic. That's how life is; sometimes we cling to our partners with such emotional voracity... here Schumacher has written life as it actually is.

I can't recall the last time I read such a satisfying and stunning book, and if you love YA you ought to add this to your TBR immediately, or better yet preorder a copy. Amelia Unabridged is due out February 16, 2021.