The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry (2015)

Natalie Cleary can’t wait until she graduates from high school, moves, and starts living by herself. However, she also happens to have repetitive visits from a “spirit” she calls “Grandmother”. For the most part, Natalie sees Grandmother as her only connection to her Native American heritage, since she was adopted soon after birth. As her graduation day approaches, Natalie receives a short, cryptic message from Grandmother, saying that she has “three months to save him”. Soon comes along Beau, a gifted pianist who seems to know what’s her experience is like, having a few spirits himself. Almost immediately they attract, but as their connection grows stronger, reality around them starts to crumble. Before time runs out, Natalie and Beau have to uncover the mysteries of their world, as well as the reason why they intertwine together

Okay, so I’ll admit, I purely chose to read this book based on the cover. Which I shouldn’t’ve had, because then I would’ve realized that this book is all over the place. I think Emily Henry got way ahead of herself writing this book, trying to combine time travel, different dimensions, instalove, Native American history, adoption, college, alcohol addiction, and an identity crisis all into one story. The plot was also poorly constructed- a day could take up the span of 60 pages and then three weeks could go by in a paragraph and whole chunks of information was missing. Still, I really enjoyed this book at times. The main character, Natalie, was extremely likable and acted realistically toward the situations presented to her. There was also some really interesting Native American stories that tied into the plot and, even though the plot wasn’t that solid, there were small areas where all the aspects came together to form something magical.

For a debut book, The Love That Split the World definitely made a mark and shows great

potential for Emily Henry’s future works.

2 Stars