P.S I Miss You

Evie's sister has been sent away.  Their family are very conservative Catholics and Cillia is pregnant.  After months of fighting Cillia is going to move in with an aunt until the baby is born, give up the baby for adoption, and then go to a Catholic School.

Evie doesn't want Cillia to stay away and writes letters to her almost everyday.  This is Evie's way of processing what happened to Cillia as well as process what is happening in her own life - question about God, religion, truth, and her own sexuality.  

But Cillia doesn't write back - or at least not often - 3 times in fact and every time she tells Evie to forget her and forget the baby.  But Evie can't forget and can't let go so after almost a year she decides to take matters in her own hands and travel to the Catholic School to see her sister.

What she discovers there is life changing (no spoilers)!

So, I have been reading this book on my iPad while on the elliptical.  I have also been reading Ive Aberdeen's Letter to the World.  Wow, so similar - like seriously did the authors talk to each, share ideas?  Both deal with middle grade girls exploring their sexuality and worried about what others will think, but even more startling is the fact that both have main characters (the crush in both) named June.  I was really not enjoying the book til almost the end.  I didn't like the letter writing technique, especially when the sister never responded.  Honestly it got old for me.  Of course when some things are finally revealed, the letters as therapy finally made a bit more sense.  I also had some issue with the negative religious themes.  I found it hard to believe that a family would be so condemning to send a daughter away (and more) in this day and age.  Maybe the 50s and 60s and I can understand that a deeply religious family would have issues with both Cillia and Evie's choices but it seemed a bit much. Maybe I am out of touch on this and there are pockets where this still occurs.  

In the end I will be comparing this to Ivy Aberdeen because they are so similar...  stay tuned.