Review: Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

Official Synopsis: 

Restless souls and empty hearts Brooklyn can't sleep. 

Her boyfriend, Lucca, died only a year ago, and now her friend Gabe has just died of an overdose. Every time she closes her eyes, Gabe's ghost is there waiting for her. She has no idea what he wants or why it isn't Lucca visiting her dreams. Nico can't stop. He's always running, trying to escape the pain of losing his brother, Lucca. But when Lucca's ghost begins leaving messages, telling Nico to help Brooklyn, emotions come crashing to the surface. As the nightmares escalate and the messages become relentless, Nico reaches out to Brooklyn. But neither of them can admit that they're being haunted. Until they learn to let each other in, not one soul will be able to rest.

Print Length: 412 pages

Publisher: Simon Pulse (January 5th 2010)

Genre: YA (dark) paranormal/realistic fiction + romance

My rating for Chasing Brooklyn:

This was my first experience of reading a book written in verse and it was a splendid one! Well, when you take out the depressing and serious context of the book, it truly was a splendid read! I was left with a feeling of warmth and a sense of hope in my heart.

So as you might have gathered from the synopsis, this is a darker read. Brooklyn still wasn't truly coping with Lucca's death and then to have another close friend kill himself...it left her with very depressing, hopeless thoughts to the point where I couldn't see the sunshine at the end of the tunnel either. After Nico and Brooklyn begin to talk again, they both realize (eventually, and at different paces) that they need the other to cope. Together, they're able to give each other hope to move forward after tragedy. They're reminded that there is a hope for a future and one with a sun so bright that you're able to stop to appreciate the beautiful day, instead of only seeing the bird that fell from its nest. I really liked this aspect of the story because we live in a world where tragedy seems to strike more and more and often times we only focus on how much everything sucks. This book is all about letting go of what is dragging you down, noticing what good there is left, and moving forward.

“She taught me to slow down.
To look up and enjoy the view.
To not worry so much about the end result
that I end up missing things along the way.”

*I labeled this as paranormal because of the ghost content, but realistic because of the strong subject and also because I will never say it's impossible to receive "signs" from our lost loved ones.

**The poetry was user-friendly so don't let that scare you off, nor should you let the page count scare you because sometimes, there were only four lines on a page, due to the fact that it was written in verse. Being written in verse only made the serious points more critical, the joy more blissful,  and the sense of hope more powerful. 

~

Find Chasing Brooklyn on Goodreads, Amazon, and B&N.

Lisa Schroeder is known for her dark subjects in stand-alone novels such as The Day Before and Falling for You and she also writes children's books. Show her some love on her website Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads!