Don’t just read When We Collided …Experience it!

I read When We Collided by Emery Lord after reading her short story “Oomph” in an anthology book. I enjoyed it enough to look up several authors and significantly grow my to be read list. Luckily I was able to get my hands on a full book by Emery rather quickly.

Here we go: All Vivi wants is a fresh start to escape her colored past. All Jonah wants is for his mom to get out of bed and act like a parent again so he can go back to being a teenager. But when the two meet on an average summer morning in Jonah’s hometown, they quickly find they might want each other also. So they spend as much time as possible together, becoming an important part of each other’s lives. Unfortunately, they can’t avoid their problems forever, especially if they’re doing their best to hide them from everyone, including each other.

When We Collided deals with mental health in a variety of ways, touching on the fact that even if a person isn’t personally struggling with mental health challenges, chances are someone they know probably is, even if they don’t realize it—a good reminder, lest we forget.

Reading the chapters from Vivi’s perspective was fascinating. Frankly, it gave me Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison in Homeland vibes. 

Claire Danes is one of my favorite actresses. Being the book nerd I am, I first saw her as Beth in the movie Little Women. Later I saw her in Shopgirl, where I witnessed her incredible range. However, seeing her in My So Called Life doing such an amazing job playing Angela Chase, an emotional teenager who is often struggling to make choices, solidified her as a person to keep tabs on. When Homeland first aired it was a must watch for me, and once again Claire didn’t disappoint. The CIA setting and each season’s intricate storyline would probably be fascinating to watch in isolation, because, sure, I want to know if there is a traitor among us, or who is responsible for the various terrorist attacks in different seasons. But Claire’s bi-polar disorder is like a whole extra character in this show, consistently changing the course of the plot and keeping me coming back for more. Every emotional high and low she portrays is so convincing.

Seeing someone pull off this type of acting is impressive. Seeing someone carry it out in writing is admirable on a whole other level, because they don’t have the visual medium to use in their portrayal. Emery had to rely solely on her words: character interactions, dialogue, inner thoughts, narration. I think she did an awesome job.

Want information about purchasing this book from Neighborhood Reads, a local Washington, MO book store? Click the book cover above!