We Said Forever

by Marie James

I wish I knew what and how to describe the depth of emotion that this story brought to the table. There are a plethora of descriptions that can be applied to this scenario and for much of the story none of them were good, this was about as brutally honest a depiction of the trauma and desolation that addiction can inflict not only on the addict but those that are associated with them as I have ever and I do mean ever read.

It was powerful, it was emotive and it was raw. Yes, it was everything you could possibly imagine, it was so gut wrenchingly raw that at times, it stripped the air from my lungs but what it didn’t do was hold back, what it didn’t do was shy away from was the fact that it was 100% honest.

It didn’t sugar coat the despair, the solitude, the self-loathing and the loneliness of all of those involved, it laid clear the fact that in his own haphazard and chaotic manner, Blaze’s decent, his spiral out of control all stemmed from one minute and malicious event. But his battle with self -destruction, and his almost apathy towards what was happening to him was too much to take at times, this was a guy that had the world at his feet only to see it slip away from him and to compound the issue he allowed his very essence to evaporate, he lost everything but most of all, he lost himself… It was soul destroying.

The book itself was totally captivating, because despite the storyline that engulfed Blaze and Fallyn, this was their love story and overlooking everything that they were put through not only by themselves and each other but by those around them, it was a love that refused to be beaten, what was between them was so powerful, so intense it was ingrained in them, the time they initially shared may have been fleeting but the feelings that were left behind were bone deep, soul searchingly deep that they almost defied description.

Heartache and hopelessness aside, this is the definition of what it is to love completely, and in my book it was a crying shame that they lost so much time together but it I got that it was a necessary evil because only through their pain and loss would their hearts every recognise the person that had the ability soothe them.

Is love ever enough?…well initially it might not seem so but give it time, I think that love can often be all you need. Some may say otherwise but when you have nothing else to hold onto, I think a heart knows that either being loved or having had the capacity to have been loved in the past is enough to shake your spirit into action and give you purpose.

Blaze needed Fallyn but he thought she didn’t need him, when it was actually a case of all she needed was him. Could these broken souls find their way through the mire that they found themselves in?

I can’t put my hand on my heart and say that I enjoyed this, I think given the intensely realistic nature of the events and the desperation of the situation that these young people found themselves in I would feel ashamed if I said I enjoyed reading their misery, but that is not to say that this isn’t a 5 star read every single day of the week because it is and so much more.

This is a book that should be mandatory for teenagers, a depiction of just how quickly and how innocently things can spiral out of control, how others can impact your life and with one slip, without the right support you can so easily go from having it all to having hit rock bottom in the blink of an eye.