Sparrow’s life is all about school, friends, and ballet. This is until she gets hit by Tristan King’s car and falls for him. Soon she finds herself in a controlling relationship.
Sparrow is a confronting, but very important tale of a young up-and-coming ballerina being abused and assaulted by her boyfriend. The tale is told in two perspectives, Sparrow herself and Lucas, her best friend who tries to stop her from getting hurt. This book deals with themes such as domestic violence, abuse, and a controlling relationship so please be aware if you are sensitive to such themes and events.
The boyfriend, Tristan King is gorgeous and dashing, and he used to be a big bully to Sparrow and her friends. Sparrow thinks that he’s changed over time, but none of her friends think so, and she is hellbent on proving them wrong. The speed of the development of this relationship went from 0 to 100 very fast, and was starting to worry her friends. Unfortunately, it turns out that not only is he a bully, he is also abusive and controlling. Yikes.
The way the book is written, Sparrow talks about events and brushes them off as they happened, as if she’s too afraid to speak ill of what is happening. This is comparison to Lucas’s perspective, where he describes the same events with a lot more detail. This is analogous to the characters themselves, Sparrow is quiet and withdrawn, whereas Lucas attempts to be loud and vocal.
In the book, as Tristan became more and more abusive and controlling, Sparrow tried her darnedest to not say anything and act like everything is fine, just like how her mother told her in the past when she was also abusive. This in hand breaks Lucas’s heart, seeing that Sparrow has blocked him and Delaney (Sparrow’s other best friend) out her life as Tristan sinks his claws into Sparrow.
I found that at times that events were out of order, such as where Sparrow would brush on something that has happened, often with little detail, and then the same event was described by Lucas later on in the book, instead of around the time Sparrow herself mentioned it. This lead me to be confused a bit at times, but Lucas as an insightful character clears things up as the novel went on.
I did however appreciate the way the author tackled this book in a way that felt raw and heartbreaking, especially given several circumstances within the book. It felt well researched and the events that conspire between Sparrow and Tristan feel as though that they could happen in real life, even if we don’t ever wish that.
Overall, this YA contemporary is a heartfelt and heartbreaking tale of a young lady who is just trying to learn to deal with the ghost of her mother haunting her, whilst trying to keep quiet from the abuse she cannot see (when others can and try to help but get turned away) for herself. Whilst the timeline of events can feel jagged at times, the themes within this book are well written and will pull on heartstrings of those who pick up this book. I recommend this book to anyone who has read I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory.
Sparrow is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of March 17th 2020. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher Macmillian-Tor/Forge in exchange for an honest review.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
In the tradition of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, a devastating but hopeful YA debut about a ballerina who finds the courage to confront the abuse that haunts her past and threatens her future.
There are two kinds of people on the planet. Hunters and prey
I thought I would be safe after my mother died. I thought I could stop searching for new places to hide. But you can’t escape what you are, what you’ve always been.
My name is Savannah Darcy Rose.
And I am still prey.
Though Savannah Rose―Sparrow to her friends and family―is a gifted ballerina, her real talent is keeping secrets. Schooled in silence by her long-dead mother, Sparrow has always believed that her lifelong creed―“I’m not the kind of girl who tells”―will make her just like everyone else: Normal. Happy. Safe. But in the aftermath of a brutal assault by her seemingly perfect boyfriend Tristan, Sparrow must finally find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past, or lose herself forever….
