The Love that Split the World

y: Emily Henry
Published Year: 2016
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 396

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Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Natalie Cleary must risk her future and leap blindly into a vast unknown for the chance to build a new world with the boy she loves. 

Natalie’s last summer in her small Kentucky hometown is off to a magical start... until she starts seeing the “wrong things.” They’re just momentary glimpses at first—her front door is red instead of its usual green, there’s a pre-school where the garden store should be. But then her whole town disappears for hours, fading away into rolling hills and grazing buffalo, and Nat knows something isn’t right.

That’s when she gets a visit from the kind but mysterious apparition she calls “Grandmother,” who tells her: “You have three months to save him.” The next night, under the stadium lights of the high school football field, she meets a beautiful boy named Beau, and it’s as if time just stops and nothing exists. Nothing, except Natalie and Beau.

Emily Henry’s stunning debut novel is Friday Night Lights meets The Time Traveler’s Wife, and perfectly captures those bittersweet months after high school, when we dream not only of the future, but of all the roads and paths we’ve left untaken.

                                                                First Impressions

Are you kidding me? This cover is beautiful! I love it! Then when I saw the description of Time Traveler’s Wife meets Friday Night Lights I was extra intrigued. I really enjoyed Time Traveler’s Wife and, even though I’ve never watched Friday Night Lights, I love football and all football related movies. An extra bonus was that this book counts for the Debut Author Challenge!

                                                                  What I thought

*Starts slow clapping while crying*

This book was so good and also heartbreaking. The writing was beautiful, the story was beautiful, as I mentioned before the cover is beautiful. Everything about this book was beautiful.

The Love that Split the World follows Natalie Cleary during the last three months of summer before she is supposed to go off to college. During her last few days of senior year, she is revisited by a spirit she calls Grandmother. Natalie used to be visited by Grandmother consistently throughout her childhood, but then at age 15 she started going to therapy and the visits stop. The story starts when Grandmother visits again after the break. Grandmother warns Natalie that she only has 3 months to save him, but Natalie doesn’t know who “him” is. All of a sudden Natalie starts seeing different visions of her world while she’s awake, and she doesn’t know what to do.

I feel like this is one of those reviews that are going to be difficult for me to write without giving too much away. At first, it’s definitely a little confusing with what is going on and what Natalie is seeing, but Henry does such a great job with the writing that it’s easy to follow after a while. One night, Natalie meets Beau, a boy she has never seen in her small town before, until some of her flashes earlier that night. Beau then figures out that Natalie is having these flashes, and shares that he has them as well, but in a completely different version of their town with all of the same characters.

I really liked Natalie. She is very mature and tends to overthink everything that she does as well as who she is and whys he is doing it. She was adopted at birth and has identity issues because of that, but her adoptive family is wonderful. I think I loved every character in this story. While Beau wasn’t my favorite, I did like the connection between Natalie and Beau. Beau definitely isn’t perfect, but I think in the end, that’s what makes him so appealing to Natalie.

My favorite character besides Natalie was her best friend Megan. I wish that she had been in it a little bit more because from the glimpses we saw, they had an amazing friendship. Megan was the only one who knew about Natalie’s visions and talks with Grandmother and believed them besides Beau. The only other person that Natalie has told is her family and they were the reason she went to therapy, to stop them.

Everything about this book was fabulous. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I felt like I couldn’t put it down because I needed to find out what happened next. Who exactly was Beau? Who did Natalie need to save? How was she going to save him? How is Natalie’s love story going to end?

In addition to that, Henry’s writing is just genius. It’s so intricate and every single bit of the story is thought out and explained so thoroughly. I think that when unnatural things, like seeing visions and parallel universes, happen it’s very important to have at least a semi-reasonable explanation as to why they are occurring. I found myself reading some of the stuff in disbelief because I couldn’t believe how well thought out everything was! The writing in this book, especially for a debut author, was just beyond. The ending was definitely a little soul crushing, but I  don’t want to reveal anything!

This book was so good that I know I’ll be raving about it for a while. The writing was beautiful and the story was so intricate and well thought out that I just can’t say enough good things about it. I think the description of this story being a combination of Time Traveler’s Wife and Friday Night Lights was spot on. If you enjoyed either of those, then I would highly recommend this story. Even if you’re not someone who is typically into more supernatural elements, you need to read this story. Henry writes it in such a believable way that I can almost believe that it can happen in real life. I don’t think I can recommend this book or Henry’s writing enough. I can’t wait to read more by her!