When Brie's sister, Faith, dies suddenly, Brie's world falls apart. As she goes through the bizarre and devastating process of mourning the sister she never understood and barely even liked, everything in her life seems to spiral farther and farther off course. Her parents are a mess, her friends don’t know how to treat her, and her perfect boyfriend suddenly seems anything but.
As Brie settles into her new normal, she encounters more questions than closure: Certain facts about the way Faith died just don't line up. Brie soon uncovers a dark and twisted secret about Faith’s final night...a secret that puts her own life in danger.
I wanted to read Losing Faith by Denise Jaden for a few different reasons and they are as follows:
Reason 1: Losing Faith is part of the Contemps Challenge and this is something I'm really happy about participating in. This was my fifth book read for the challenge and so far I have loved all five of them.
Reason 2: The cover and title. You HAD to know this was coming. There are so many aspects of this cover that I love. The girl holding the flowers is just so subtle and I didn't even notice what was going on with it before I actually LOOKED at it. I love the flowers because they are representing death and mourning but the butterflies make me think of Brie's quest to find out what what happened and free her sister's name. I also really loved how the title had double meaning. I can be such a dork when it comes to stuff like that, I just think it's neat.
Reason 3: My friend Shana is friends with Denise and I'm just all about support. I love supporting authors and all the ones I have come in contact with (in real life or through Twitter) are just people I genuinely want to see do well. They make it so easy though because their work, Denise's include, is just fantastic.
Going into this book, I wasn't really sure what it was about. All I knew about it was what was printed on the back and that Shana's friend was the author. I started reading one night before bed (which is when I get most of my reading done nowadays) and didn't want to put it down. I didn't get much read for a few days but once I did, I stayed up til after 3am reading. The only reason I stopped? My eyes were burning so bad and it actually hurt to keep them open.
I was worried that the religion aspect might get too preachy* but was happy it didn't. I had my ideas of what was going to happen but that just made me want to read faster to see if my theories were valid; they weren't. I found myself invested in these characters, especially Brie and her parents. Denise really showed the grief well and it was heartbreaking.
The writing was beautiful and I really liked Brie. She was relentless in trying to find out the truth and she made a few great friends in the process. I liked that Brie, Tessa, and Alis all had the same common bond and that they were able to open up to each other when they felt they couldn't talk about it with anyone.
Tessa was my favorite character because she was supposed to be this hard gothy person but she wasn't any of that. Well, ok. Maybe she was a little but she is the perfect example of why you shouldn't be quick to judge people. She was a great friend and was there when Brie needed her the most. Also, I loved Brie's poem about her at the end. Alis was cool but I had a hard time pushing Alistair from Supernatural out of my head. Somehow, I don't think this was who I was supposed to be imagining.
Great debut by Denise and I look forward to reading quite a bit more from her.
Have you read Losing Faith? Will you?
*I have nothing against religion. I grew up in a Christian household and have the utmost respect for it. The last book I read that contained religion was way preachy and I felt like things were being shoved down my throat. Not cool.
I liked Tessa, too!
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