Rye Crimson

This book has been eating away at my mind for a while now, so I felt compelled to write a review. Spoilers ahead. Before I Let Go is wonderful book that shows the difference between hope and delusion, and what happens when the latter goes too far. I'd like to say it outright, the citizens of Lost Creek are absolutely awful, horrid people. They treated Kyra like a stranger for over 16 years, talked ill of her behind her back, (and in front of her!!), and wanted her to leave despite the fact she had grown up there all her life. When she finally has some semblance of usefulness to the town (via her clairvoyant, future predicting artworks) they used her and prevented her from leaving their town until she died. After decades of struggling and overall uneventfulness, Lost Creek began to change into a happier, more hopeful place, but it came at the cost of Kyra's life. The people of Lost never cared about Kyra, they never knew her like Corey did, and yet, they had the gall to act like they helped her, that they made her life better, and that they cared for her better than Corey did. I could definitely feel the immense anger that Corey felt towards the people of Lost, towards the injustice of losing her best friend. We are shown countless times throughout the book how much Corey and Kyra mean to each other, and it's made all the more emotionally devastating with Kyra's unsent letters and Corey's realization that she'll never come back. I'd chalk it up to my own emotional sentimentality (or to the fact that I generally don't read a lot of books), but I've never read a novel that has ever made me this upset. Corey and Kyra had a great dynamic (objective science lover vs. romantic storyteller) and their friendship was genuinely fantastic, and the people of Lost broke both of them down and got away scot-free. I was patiently waiting for the moment that the people of Lost, or at least a handful of them would realize what they had done, what they did to Kyra, the way they treated Corey. But sadly, the citizens of Lost Creek received no comeuppance for their actions. They drove Kyra to madness and killed her, they disowned and alienated Corey, who had once called Lost Creek her only home. Mr. and Ms. Henderson, the Sheriff, Ms. Morden, all these people who Corey had fond memories of either gave her the cold shoulder or actively tried to harm her. So where does Corey go from here? Her best friend with big dreams was killed by a delusional town that will continue to revere her as a false prophet for generations to come, she's been disowned by the only place she's called home, she's lost Kyra's writings consequently losing the last connection she has to her. Does Corey fall into despair? No, she clings onto hope. She'll never be able to reverse the damage done, she'll never be able to rewind time, but she will continue to hold onto Kyra's memory and tell her story. Corey will carry the loss of Kyra for years, but she will always remember her as she truly was, not as her manic episodes, not as Lost Creek's prophet, but as the girl who wanted to collect stories, who sought meaning rather than understanding, who wanted to be the hero of her own story. That is the Kyra that will live on in Corey's heart. Marieke Nijkamp wrote a fantastic and heartbreaking story that will sit in my mind for an uncomfortable amount of time. In the meantime, I'll try to find some happier books to read :).