The Love That Split the World, which was a buzzy YA release last year, was a book I only moderately enjoyed (my review is over here). I remember very little of the story as a whole. I looked over my review and I'm so glad that my hopes had come true! Emily Henry is an excellent writer and she nailed it with A Million Junes.
I was a little nervous to read AMJ considering how confused I felt about TLTSTW, and it didn't help that the first sentence of the book is "From my bedroom window, I watch the ghost flutter.". This book contains one of my reading weaknesses: magical realism. Sometimes, I love the stuff. Most of the time, I'm utterly confused. In this case, I was completely enchanted.
The heart of this story revolves around a decades-long rivalry between the O'Donnells and the Angerts, two stubborn families who each have their own take on what went wrong. June, who is the 4th Jack of the O'Donnells (June is short for "Junior"), is proud of her lineage and intends to spend her life like her father did: traveling the world while maintaining a life in Five Fingers, Michigan. June meets Saul Angert and, despite everything she has been taught, can't seem to stay away from this attractive young man. What follows is an extraordinary journey through the past to find out what caused the rift between the O'Donnells and Angerts and, more importantly, to see if it can be mended.
June travels through the memories of her ancestors and communicates wordlessly with a constant ghost presence, which is obviously a little "out there", but there's also the excellent and relatable everyday teen bonding, angst, and romance. June and Saul have the forbidden thing going for them (which is always fun), and they also love to tease each other. I laughed and swooned over their hilarious flirty banter and rooted for them the whole time.
There's so much heart in this book and it covers an array of topics that anyone can relate to. Emily Henry's description says it all: "This is my fun little book about love, lakes, ghosts, grief, inheritance, magic, Michigan, and the meaning of life and death. it's chill."
Rating
The story and the writing are so beautiful and I absolutely adored the romance and the magic. It was a wonderful reading experience, one of which I hadn't had in a while, and I'm so glad I gave Emily Henry another chance.
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