I got this book from Netgalley. Yes, the title got me curious. Aren't you? Unrequited?
This story isn't like the adventures the more popular Alice had. This is a bit sad and you will find yourself empathizing with Alice, especially if you have had an unrequited love. Yes, this is about unrequited love. Have you had one? I think, once in our lifetime, each of us will have to go through this type of unnecessary yet unavoidable emotion. It is not unheard of nor is it a phenomenal occurrence. Every person will at least have this kind of heartache or a recipient of this unwanted or undeserved feeling.
Like Alice in Wonderland, Alice here did fall but not into a rabbit hole but fall or to be correct, fell in love with the fiance of her best friend. What is more tragic than that? There is. Here it comes. As it turned out, she fell again for another guy. This time a guy who had become her best friend yet does not want to fall in love with her. Ouch! This seemed like a hopeless case, right or is Alice the hopeless one?
In more ways than one, my heart bleeds as Alice's heart was broken, twice. I can relate to her experiences in some ways, though I have not specifically fallen in love with my best friend's boy friend. Honestly, I did fell in love with a guy who I had gotten very close to but when our friends started teasing us, he admitted that he was not ready for another relationship. Believable, because he just found out that his long-time girlfriend has found another love and she never even bothered to tell him. He told me that he will be ready in two years. I was not really hopeful and I did not wait around for two years to find out. I left and worked in another city for seven years. When I moved back, I bumped into him and it was just like the song says--"I remember the boy but I don't remember the feeling, anymore."
It is really difficult and excruciating moving on from an unrequited love. Keeping that feeling hidden alone is enough to induce a coronary, much less proclaiming it only to be rejected. That is way more than double jeopardy. More like double collateral damage. I am not sure if I would still have a heart left after that. Just like what happened to Alice. But then, just like they say, everything happens for a reason and for its own season. Timing. There is such a thing as perfect timing. There are people who come into our lives for a purpose and for a specific time. Some of them are not meant to stay. Or meant to be.
As sad as the title is, this isn't all a tear-jerker. This story will also make you hopeful and not scared to fall in love. Yes, fall in love again. Hopefully, not unrequited the next time. This is a true example that the best relationships often start with friendships. I would love to fall in love with my best friend. Sadly, no (male) one matches that designation currently or for the last ten years. Maybe, I will have to make one. After all, relationships are not all measured by the length of time you've known each other (like in the story) but by the depth and intensity of the experiences you have shared and battled through together. There is still hope, yet.
I give this book 5/5 stunning pictures of Niagara Falls. Everyone is powerless against love. It's like stopping a raging waterfall. Like the saying goes, better to have loved than to have not loved at all. Not being in a relationship doesn't mean, you won't have your heart broken. There are no guarantees, especially if you have an unrequited love.
What I love about this book is that the author perfectly captured and described in detail the exact vulnerability and heartache anyone has to go through in an unrequited love. The pain, the what if's, the maybe's and the daydreams are all vividly rounded up that you can't help but relive the pain of your own exhausting, tormenting and harsh unrequited experience, making Alice a kindred-spirit.
And you'll never know that being in unrequited love is a heart-breaking, soul-destroying thing.
- Sarah Louise Smith, Unrequited Alice -
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