Words in Deep Blue -- Truly a Blue-tiful Novel

Words in Deep Blue is a love letter to the sea and bookshops everywhere in the form of a very nostalgic novel. Cath Crowley's writing style is beautifully illusive and full of quote-worthy dialogue and phrases. The story itself is full of different themes ranging from young love to grief and death. We follow the characters of Rachel, a young girl forced to move back to the city and the best friend she cut all connection with, and Henry, lover of books and worker at his family's secondhand bookshop who is just as geeky as is to be expected. Their story is full of ups and downs, miscommunication, and of course, an ex-girlfriend who just won't seem to get out of the picture. But this novel goes deeper than surface level romance and conflict. It explores the concepts of love after years of disconnection and hurt. It describes the grief of losing a loved one and the uncertainty of the future. And it delves into the power of words pitted against the hard facts of life. All in all, it is a beautiful and enjoyable read, full of gorgeous description, witty characters, and a unique system of letter sending via book pages. (you'll have to read to find out exactly what I mean by that...)

Some of my Favorite Quotes from this novel include:

"... I like to think of love as being slightly more forgiving than time."

"If we all gave up on the things we love when it gets hard, it'd be a terrible world."

"Because I love books in a way that's beyond logic and reason ... It's not enough to read -- I want to talk through the pages to get to the other side ... I want to spend my life hunting them, reading them, selling them ..."

"Perhaps all things that are worthwhile are terrifying?"

"Words matter, in fact. They're not pointless ... If they were pointless, then they couldn't start revolutions and they wouldn't change history ... we wouldn't write songs or listen to them. We wouldn't beg to be read to as kids ... stories wouldn't have been around since before we could write ... If they were just words, people wouldn't fall in love because of them, feel bad because of them, ache because of them, and stop aching because of them ..."

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