How would you cope with the death of a loved one? Will you be able to continue your life and do not look back? Daphne has to ask herself this question every day for the past seven years and she constantly thinks back to the day her sister and her boyfriend committed suicide. Emily and Jason had both depression and stopped taking their medication. They left no note. They left their families with no explanation. But, one day after school Daphne finds a box of Emily’s things hidden under a floorboard, which included a bucket list.
Emily & Jason’s Top Ten
- The Great Wall of China
- Jim Morrison’s grave
- Climb Mount Everest
- Skydive
- The Sahara Desert
- Own a pair of designer shoes
- Niagara Falls
- Running with the Bulls
- Go To Outer Space
Daphne doesn’t know what to do with this list, but there’s one person in the whole world who would and she wants to share this last piece of her sister with Jason’s brother, Oliver. He receives a friends request from Daphne, who he instantly recognised as Emily’s sister. He does not accept it because he doesn’t want to be reminded of the past. However, Daphne does not give up and confronts him in person at his school. While there, she discovers the school church and finds herself talking to the pastor on my occasions. It is there that Oliver later finds Daphne and they discuss what they should do about the bucket list. They could fulfil it themselves.
The pair are aware they can’t travel the world and leave everyone or not graduate, so they find substitutes in Los Angeles instead. Climbing Mount Everest becomes a hike to the Hollywood sign, visiting Jim Morrison’s grave becomes Marilyn Monroe’s, and visiting the Sahara becomes a trip to the Nevada desert.
Connected through tragedy, they find one another and they both understand how the other feels by talking about their siblings and building a friendship.
So Glad To Meet You shows what happens to those left behind when one person’s choice creates a butterfly effect for the people in their lives. We see how both families deal with their loses—Daphne’s family stopped being one with her mother burying herself in work, while her father starts drinking. Meanwhile, Oliver’s parents unknowingly compare him to his brother and he has that weight on his shoulders to take over the family business one day.
As for Daphne, she feels alone and counts the days until she can finally graduate and move to San Francisco for college. For Oliver, he can’t wait to move to Montana and until then, he won’t deal with his feelings and attempts to cope with one girl after another, as long as she doesn’t want more since he’s afraid of having one.
Isn’t that what love is, though? Except it’s the opposite. Instead of the darkness, you don’t look past the light in the other person. You don’t focus on the bad, the weaknesses, the imperfections. You see what you want to see.
It is nice to see both of them evolve and finding the strength to open up to each other, especially Oliver realising that he has lived in a cocoon and starts to open his heart. There may be some cliches, but it was quite beautiful to see how they find love and a new beginning from something that began as the worst thing in their lives.
So Glad To Meet You is Lisa Super’s debut novel. Super, who works on TV productions and loves travelling, leaves you with a happy ending, but also with two little questions: What did Daphne write under number 10? How did they choose to build their future? There are some hints, but it also leaves a bit of space for your own interpretation.
You can follow Lisa Super on Twitter and Instagram.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Seventeen-year-old Daphne Bowman, a bookish drama nerd in public school, might never have crossed paths with Oliver, the popular, outgoing mascot for his private school’s football team, but one event has bound them inextricably. Daphne’s older sister, Emily, and Oliver’s older brother, Jason, who were high school sweethearts, committed suicide together seven years earlier.
When Daphne uncovers Emily and Jason’s bucket list—a list comprised of their “Top Ten” places to visit before they die—she knows she has to tell someone. The one person who might actually get what she’s going through and who might not think it’s silly that she wants to complete the list, is also someone she’s never spoken to—Oliver Pagano. Throwing caution to the wind, Daphne sends Oliver a Facebook message that will come to change the course of both of their senior years—and maybe their entire lives.
Tackling grief with a wry voice and an unflinching eye, So Glad to Meet You tells the story of two people who, in searching for what they’ve lost, end up finding what they never knew they needed—each other.
