November 9 by Colleen Hoover

I saw a picture of this book on Tumblr and the caption mentioned that the book would be released on November 10th.  That intrigued me, so I decided to find out what November 9 was about.  The description of the book intrigued me even more, so I bought the book as soon as I could get out to the bookstore.  I am very glad I did.  Having never read a book by Colleen Hoover, I wasn't really sure what to expect.  In all honesty, I had never heard of this author up until I saw the picture of November 9.  However, I do believe I will be reading more Colleen Hoover books now.

Overall Ms. Hoover's writing style is pleasing.  She uses a good mix of varied sentence structure and complexity to keep the reader from becoming bored and her vocabulary is satisfactory.  I found her writing easy to follow but thankfully not simplistic.  The only thing that I had to get used to was the story switching from one narrator to the other.  Thankfully it was easy enough to follow as each chapter had its own narrator and did not switch between narrators in the middle of a chapter.

I enjoyed the characters in this book.  They were well written and easy to identify with.  Even when I really wanted to dislike a character, in the end, I couldn't.  The characters were real.  In each character the reader can find a bit of themselves.  Even the most unlikeable character, Fallon's father, I ended up at least understanding and being able to peacefully coexist with. 

As far as the story goes... Wow.  That's really all I can say.  Just...wow!  The story explores so much and the characters grow so much!  This book beautifully illustrates the complex dynamics between individuals and family members.  Ms. Hoover does a great job of giving the characters a story that allows them to develop and learn about themselves.  And the plot?  Let's just say I never saw it coming.  I suppose perhaps I should have, but I didn't, and that made the end of the book have so much impact.

I really can't say enough good things about this book.  If you read no other book in the coming year, you must read this book.  My only caution is that this book does have certain topics that are not suitable for younger readers.  Nothing that is terrible or over the top, but nevertheless, I would not recommend this book for anyone under the age of a mature mid-teen reader.  But don't let this scare you off!  This book is amazing and should be one of the first books you read in 2016.  I enjoyed the book so much, I will likely read November 9 again in the new year.