Eep! I haven’t done a book review in what feels like forever. I read Devine Intervention back in July. At the time I knew exactly what I wanted to write about it, but it’s been so long I forgot most of it. I feel bad too, because I’m friends with authors, and I know how important reviews on sites like GoodReads and Amazon are to them. Let this be a lesson learned.
Devine Intervention by Martha Brockenbrough
My experience with YA books is basically limited to love stories with either vampiric or dystopian themes. Devine Intervention . . . is absolutely nothing like that at all. Brockenbrough had me at the summary, but Devine Intervention was nothing like I expected.
The chapters alternate between Jerome’s and Heidi’s points of view. Jerome never failed to crack me up. Oh, to be in the mind of a good intentioned yet trouble making 17-year-old boy. I found myself giggling more than once. Especially because of that damn arrow. Although I couldn’t really relate to Heidi on a personal level, I felt the awkwardness of being a teenage girl all over again. Yikes.
Devine Intervention was full of twists and turns, and just when I thought it was turning predictable and I had it all figured out, it threw me for a loop I couldn’t believe. The plot was so unlike anything I could have imagined. I could not put the book down until I knew how it ended.
One of the things I loved the most about this story (other than Jerome’s interpretations of the Ten Commandments for the Dead, the hidden adult humor, Vincent Lionheart, etc. I could go on forever.) was watching the characters really grow and develop and blah blah blah—I know it sounds lame, but that’s something I don’t get to see much in YA novels. Sure there’s a lesson to be learned and the main characters usually become more self-aware. But in Devine Intervention, you actually get to see the progression as the characters make the transition from teenager to young adult.
I absolutely love the way Brockenbrough wrote the ending. It fit the story perfectly. With that being said, it did hurt my heart a little bit. Okay, a lot a bit. It was bittersweet, but I think that’s what made it so powerful.
I heard rumors that there’s a sequel in the future. Sign me up!