Fixing Delilah ~ Sarah Ockler

Publisher’s Summary:

“Things in Delilah Hannaford’s life have a tendency to fall apart.

She used to be a good student, but she can’t seem to keep it together anymore. Her friends are drifting away. Her “boyfriend” isn’t a boyfriend. Her mother refuses to discuss the fight that divided the Hannaford family eight years ago. Falling apart, it seems, runs in the family.

When Delilah must spend the summer helping to settle her estranged grandmother’s estate, she’s suddenly confronted by her family’s painful past. Faced with questions that cannot be ignored and secrets that threaten to burst free, Delilah begins to doubt all that she’s ever known to be true.”

Sarah Ockler’s debut, Twenty Boy Summer, tugged all of my emotional strings. It was a story I thought about long after, earning its spot on my keeper shelf with its sincerity and depth, and so it was with high expectations that I picked up Fixing Delilah. And you know what? Though it dealt with grief, family, and first, true love, it was a vastly different story, and oh-so-close to being just as remarkable as its predecessor. In simpler terms, I loved it.

For those who don’t know me or my reading habits, that previous statement may seem casual; in actuality, it’s not. I don’t read realistic fiction or books with a heaping helping of issues. Rather, I stay far, far away from them whenever possible. But Sarah Ockler has a knack for creating stories that, while dealing with painful, heartbreaking moments, never feel too heavy to bear. There’s always this hope, this lifeline, for the characters and the reader to cling to.

Which leads me to my next point: The characters, in both books, are remarkable. Ockler’s female protagonists are self-aware and mature, but still make mistakes. Delilah, this story’s titular character, acts out, seeks solace in the wrong places, but she is aware of what she is doing every step of the way. She knows why she’s doing it, even knows she maybe shouldn’t be doing it, but she never crosses the pity-me line, and her actions (or reactions) are honest enough that you – I – never felt aggravated or annoyed by her. Instead, she’s this wonderful balance, able to see past her pain and problems, for the most part, to really look at the world and the other people around her. How she dealt with that insight showed how complex and dynamic a character she was. I realize I’m blabbering on about this, but…it’s an important point for me as a reader, and it may be for you too. In any event, the other characters that populate this book are wonderful (or wonderfully flawed) in their own right, especially Patrick, but I won’t say more because you’ll see for yourself once you meet him.

As I mentioned earlier, Fixing Delilah deals with grief. It also looks at the wounds that fester when secrets are kept, the way families can break you apart and pick up the pieces, and how important it is to look to yourself first when trying to “fix” your problems and not rely on others to do it for you. There’s friendship and romance, a lovely Vermont setting, music and antique sales, and…So much.

Once I picked up Fixing Delilah I didn’t put it back down until it was done. I have a feeling that that will always be the case with Ockler’s books because her voice, her characters and stories work for me on every level. Hands down, I am a fan. If you try her books, and I hope you do, I also hope you find as much to love about them as I did.

Fixing Delilah is set to be released by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on December 1st.

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