Book Review - Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure how I feel about this book, really. I gave it four stars because it is beautifully and sensitively written, and because, all things being equal, this is a very good book. But I also hate this book. I hate it for ripping into my heart the way it did. I hate it for touching on the very very sensitive emotions inside of me that still can have me bursting into tears at the strangest moments.

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas is a love story. It's a love story that is difficult for Katie, our protagonist, to read, because it is the love story of Matt, her boyfriend, and his wife Suzanne, and their beautiful child, Nicholas. Matt has given Katie a copy of Suzanne's diary to read and has disappeared, just when she was about to give him what she thought was some of the happiest news anyone has to share; Katie is pregnant. And now she is alone with the love story of Matt and Suzanne and unsure of how to deal with the emotions it brings up for her.

I suspected very early on that Suzanne was dead. Despite the wonderings about whether Matt had been cheating on her (very unlikely, how would he have stolen her diary to give to Katie if Suzanne were still alive and kicking?) or whether they were divorced now (again, how would he have the diary?) I knew. It was clear. So I was prepared for tragedy. But I was unprepared for the depths to which that tragedy would go, and how it would affect me.

If you have lost a spouse, or a child, someone who is irreplaceable in your life, this book may make you hate it as well, because it is written with such a poignant knowledge of what those emotions can do to a person. So I hate this book. And I still give it four stars, even though it has me doing the ugly cry right now at two thirty in the morning.

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