Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Nora Grey is a nice girl, bright and hard working. Her mother travels frequently for work in a struggle to keep their home after her father’s death, and Nora; responsible, steady Nora does all she can to make sure her mom doesn’t worry too much. Then Nora is partnered with Patch in a school project. Mysterious and borderline creepy, Nora just wants to stay the heck away from him, but he seems to be everywhere, watching her. The sparks between Patch and Nora are undeniable, the shocking truth of Patch’s past is uncovered and all that remains for them to discover is, “how much will they sacrifice for the other?”

When I received a copy of Becca Fitzpatrick’s new novel, Hush, Hush to review from the publisher, I was happy to give it to my daughter to read first. She is 15 years old, and, like all 15-year-old girls, thinks that Twilight rocks and Edward is just dreamy. In a prominent position in her bedroom is a large poster-sized picture of Edward, in all his brooding magnificence. All of which elicits enough eye rolling on my part to practically make me dizzy. I never made it past the first book in the Twilight series, I think Bella is an annoying angst-y twit, Edward is a wuss, and Jacob needs a haircut. (Sparkly vampires….sheesh…) All I wanted was to find a book we could find some common ground on, a book we’d both like. Imagine my surprise when she completed the book and announced to the family, “Hush, Hush was awesome…better than Twilight!”

And she’s right! Hush, Hush is awesome and it was just soooo much better than Twilight. (Of course to my perspective, that wouldn’t take much!) We agree that this book should be made into a movie, and we’re really hoping for a sequel, although it wouldn’t be necessary. The book stands on it’s own and doesn’t leave us readers hanging.

Something I really enjoyed about the book was how normal the teens in the book were. Nora was the spitting image of my own daughter, and her wacky friend Vee was just like her best friend. The kids were all good kids, making iffy choices at times, but still good kids. It was refreshing from the “mom” perspective to read a book where the author not only seems to understand teens, but also, actually likes them.

Both my daughter and myself hope that Becca Fitzpatrick is hard at work writing another novel. We can’t wait to read many more books by this creative and inventive author. And, as an aside, this book has taken care of a good sized chunk of my Christmas list…all the teens on my list will be getting a copy of Hush, Hush this year!!

My rating: