How to sing this book’s praises without sounding too cheesy… It might not be possible.
The sequel to To Save a Life was instantly a better read based purely on the characters facing a phase of life I was actually familiar with. In Jake’s Choice, they’re now dealing with moving away from close friends, trying to fit in and impress people, and a whole new world of sexual temptation.
The internal dialogue in this book is what really got me addicted. The level of detail surrounding the logic some of the characters process feels so real I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the authors are either psychologists or youth counsellors. Or maybe they just remember going through all this themselves.
My only regret is that I didn’t read this book earlier in the year, when I was learning how to cope with a close friend moving away and balancing the negative and positive reasons for “why haven’t I received a reply yet?”. I would have learnt that everything I was feeling and confused about was actually normal and not something I ever really needed to justify to myself.
Regarding conflict, “normal” books introduce conflict that seems to aid the plot beyond what appears to be natural or logical. In fact, after finishing Jake’s Choice, I realized that every point of conflict I’ve read in another book feels like straight up Deus ex machina. The arguments are always black and white, and authors point out who you should consider the ‘good guy’ with a bright yellow highlighter. But not here. Jake and Amy’s arguments are so… grey, you end up being angry and empathetic to both characters AT THE SAME TIME.
Predominately, the book is about Jake and how he gradually slips back into being the douche of a human he used to be in the original book, his justifications are so familiar and reasonable, that when he cheats on his girlfriend and eventually starts up a non-committal sexual relationship with the friendly girl downstairs, you end up rooting for him. Then when everything comes crashing down and Jake is left feeling alone and discarded, you yourself wonder how he got into this mess in the first place.
The slip-ups and mistakes Jake made were so gradual and sometimes barely recognizable. It was enough to make me wonder what slip-ups I’m currently making that I’m not even aware of yet. While To Save a Life was like a celebration of victory, Jake’s Choice was a glimpse at what real life is like after the ‘happily ever after’. And it’s what we do after that ‘happily ever after’ that defines us as humans.
“Good thing there’s grace, huh?” Chris Vaughn (Jake's Choice)