Review: Sparrow by Mary Cecilia Jackson

Sparrow's life is all about school, friends, and ballet. This is until she gets hit by Tristan King's car and falls for him. Soon she finds herself in a controlling relationship.

Sparrow is a confronting, but very important tale of a young up-and-coming ballerina being abused and assaulted by her boyfriend. The tale is told in two perspectives- from Sparrow herself, and Lucas- her best friend who tries to stop her from getting hurt. This book deals with themes such as domestic violence, abuse, and a controlling relationship. I do not recommend this book for those who are extremely sensitive to such themes and events.

The boyfriend, Tristan King is gorgeous, dashing, and used to be a big bully to Sparrow and her friends. Sparrow thinks that he's changed over time, but none of her friends think so, and she is hellbent on proving them wrong. The speed of the development of this relationship went from 0 to 100 very fast, and was starting to worry her friends. Unfortunately, it turns out that not only is he a bully, he is also abusive and controlling. Yikes.

The way the book is written, Sparrow talks about events and brushes them off as they happened, as if she's too afraid to speak ill of what is happening. This is comparison to Lucas's perspective, where he describes the same events with a lot more detail. This is analogous to the characters themselves- Sparrow is quiet and withdrawn, whereas Lucas attempts to be loud and vocal. 

In the book, as Tristan became more and more abusive and controlling, Sparrow tried her darnedest to not say anything and act like everything is fine, just like how her mother told her in the past when she was also abusive. This in hand breaks Lucas's heart, seeing that Sparrow has blocked him and Delaney (Sparrow's other best friend) out her life as Tristan sinks his claws into Sparrow.

I found that at times, events were out of order- where Sparrow would brush on something that has happened, often with little detail, and then the same event was described by Lucas later on in the book, instead of around the time Sparrow herself mentioned it. This lead me to be confused a bit at times, but Lucas as an insightful character clears things up as the novel went on. 

I did however appreciate the way the author tackled this book in a way that felt raw and heartbreaking, especially given several circumstances within the book. It felt well researched and the events that conspire between Sparrow and Tristan feel as though that they could happen in real life- even if we don't ever wish that.

Overall, this Young Adult contemporary is a heartfelt, heartbreaking tale of a young lady who is just trying to learn to deal with the ghost of her mother haunting her, whilst trying to keep quiet from the abuse she cannot see (when others can and try to help but get turned away) for herself. Whilst the timeline of events can feel jagged at times, the themes within this book are well written and will pull on heartstrings of those who pick up this book. I recommend this book to anyone who has read I Hold Your Heart by Karen Gregory.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to Macmillian-Tor/Forge for the eARC!

Note: This review is also posted on The Nerd Daily- link to come.