This Is How It Happened book review

This is How it Happened by Paula Stokes
Published by HarperTeen on July 11, 2017
Pages: 384
Goodreads

Somehow I’ve become a liar. A coward. Here’s how it happened.

When Genevieve Grace wakes up from a coma, she can’t remember the car crash that injured her and killed her boyfriend Dallas, a YouTube star who had just released his first album. Genevieve knows she was there, and that there was another driver, a man named Brad Freeman, who everyone assumes is guilty. But as she slowly pieces together the night of the accident, Genevieve is hit with a sickening sense of dread—that maybe she had something to do with what happened.

As the internet rages against Brad Freeman, condemning him in a brutal trial by social media, Genevieve escapes to her father’s house, where she can hide from reporters and spend the summer volunteering in beautiful Zion National Park. But she quickly realizes that she can’t run away from the accident, or the terrible aftermath of it all.

Incredibly thought-provoking and beautifully told, Paula Stokes’s story will compel readers to examine the consequences of making mistakes in a world where the internet is always watching…and judging.

I bought This Is How It Happened off of Amazon after reading a couple of good reviews about the story and I was intrigued by the blurb. I will say I wasn’t expecting a lot in terms of development because I thought it was a little tropey. I was right to not expect too much, this book was a little too much for me, I saw the twist coming and I have to say that it wasn’t particularly well done. The blurb to me spoke more of a mystery element and this book is not that, not even slightly. I do think a lot of this book feels rushed, and although the message behind it was important the actual plot felt a little simplistic.

I think the characters in This Is How It Happened was an issue in themselves, they were a little two dimensional. I wanted them to be a little more nitty gritty for there to be a little bit more of mystery. I would have loved for Genevieve to be a little bit more of a bad girl rather than the flawless goody two shoes that we were given. I was so underwhelmed with the relationships and the way that they all developed, I just think everything about these characters played it safe. I wanted so much more than what we got from the characters.

I think the best bits of This Is How It Happened definitely have something to do with the setting and how beautiful everything is described as being. I also thought that the way that grief was developed and discussed throughout, I really enjoyed reading about her journey through everything especially as it was surrounding a younger relationship without the commitments of marriage or children. I thought there was a really good arc with the character and how everything ended up, it was a nice surprise and one that I really enjoyed. I think that grief is something that happens in YA a lot but very rarely done well or developed, this book filled that gap for me.

I do think the worst bit about This Is How It Happened was how rushed everything felt. Although I do believe that grief is handled well within the story and plot line I do think that overall the book was rushed. There were definitely places where I had wished that there would be more development and just more about the actual legality of the situation. I just think the reactions to everything weren’t realistic and although they were a huge amount of the drama at the end there weren’t any actual consequences which annoyed me.

I think I would recommend This Is How It Happened purely because of the way that grief is handled throughout this story but I do think there are better books out there for amnesia and they have better endings.

Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Let me know!