The Girl He Used to Know
Tracey Garvis Graves
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
The Girl He Used to Know
Tracey Garvis Graves
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
This novel is a strongly character-driven work.
Graves...uses short chapters to keep the pages turning as the narrative alternates between college-age Annika and Jonathan falling in love in the early 1990s to the two of them seeing how they fit into each other’s life in 2001. The pace slows as the cause of their breakup—and the physical and emotional toll the events took on Annika—are explored, then quickens again for the 9/11-set climax. Graves’ specialty is making complicated lives compelling; give this to readers who like earlier Kristin Hannah or Barbara Delinsky’s sensitively, romantically drawn characters..
Telling the story primarily from Annika’s perspective, Graves...mirrors Annika’s own logical, concrete thought patterns with straightforward sentence structure and minimal description. Careful to balance the emotional and intellectual power between Annika and Jonathan, Graves creates a believable love affair in which Annika is not infantilized but rather fully realized as simply different.
The solid latest from Graves...follows the romance between a high-functioning autistic woman and her college flame.