Review: Ask Me How I Got Here

Ask Me How I Got Here
By Christine Heppermann
Published May 3, 2016 by Greenwillow Books
Reviewed from e-ARC

Addie's pretty much had her life figured out. But one careless night with her boyfriend finds her pregnant. Now, nothing will be quite the same.

I was pretty excited to see this one available for review pre-publication. I loved Poisoned Apples and had already started hearing good things about this one. I'm an avowed lover of novels in verse, so I fully expected to be over the moon for this one, too.

While I enjoyed this, I didn't love it like I had imagined I would. I appreciate the hell out of the story. Addie gets pregnant and decides to have an abortion. Her parents support her, as does her boyfriend. But Addie cannot deny that something inside her has changed, so she quits cross-country running and breaks up with her boyfriend. She doesn't think her abortion is the end of her life or means she's broken, or any of the other typical narratives associated with the topic. But it has changed her and she seeks to uncover just what that change really means.

One of the changes Addie is exploring has to do with her friendship with a former teammate, one who is away at college now. Addie begins to wonder if that friendship might actually be something else, something she has never acknowledged until now. Unfortunately, this is where the book fell down for me. I am glad that Addie is questioning her identity and trying to decide what feels right for her, but I felt that this part of the story was not as well-developed as it deserved to be. Additionally, the ending of the book felt extremely abrupt - I was enjoying the story and wanted it to keep going, expanding on the topics that were just emerging, and then it ended. I guess it's good to leave your readers wanting more?

Overall, another great read from Heppermann. Thanks to the publisher for a digital advance reader's copy, provided via Edelweiss.