A Story of Unconditional Love

This novel is definitely the most sophisticated romantic book I have ever read. I've got to be honest, though -- it definitely wasn't my favorite. Regardless, I did enjoy many parts of this book. The character development was very sound, especially because the events of the book jump around in time. The relationship between Annika and Jonathan could never be labeled as shallow, as it spans over years and even the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But I found this very deep development of the relationship to make the book as a whole very slow. I had trouble getting into it and really investing in the characters because I felt like I was still trying to get to know them. Throughout the entire book, I was waiting for some sort of large event to happen. Instead, Annika and Jonathan have a gradual falling out, which I found to be disappointing. What I was anticipating to come earlier is actually what ends the entire book: Annika's twelve-hour drive to New York to search for Jonathan, who was injured while inside of the South Tower when it went down. I guess I would have just structured the plot differently if I were the writer. But Tracey Garvis Graves does an excellent job of portraying the unconditional kind of love that we all hope to find for ourselves through Annika and Jonathan's relationship. She realistically portrays the difficulties of understanding human interaction from a high-functioning autistic perspective, and alongside of this, shows how people who see the world differently actually have a great amount of wisdom and knowledge to offer the rest of us. In all, Annika and Jonathan's story is a realistic one. 

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Some of my favorite quotes from The Girl He Used to Know:

"Reading transported me to exotic locales, fascinating periods in history, and worlds that were vastly different from my own."

"All my life, I'd been waiting for someone I could be myself with. It had never occurred to me that I could be that person for someone else."

"... I don't think there's any way to truly know whether someone is kind until you put your trust in them and show them kindness of your own."

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