Review : Can't Look Away by Donna Cooner

Summary (from Goodreads) 

Title : Can't Look Away
Author : Donna Cooner
Publication Date : August 26th 2014
Publisher : Point
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes & Noble 

Donna Cooner establishes herself as our own Jodi Picoult in this timely tale of sisters, loss, and redemption.

Torrey Grey is famous. At least, on the internet. Thousands of people watch her popular videos on fashion and beauty. But when Torrey's sister is killed in an accident -- maybe because of Torrey and her videos -- Torrey's perfect world implodes.

Now, strangers online are bashing Torrey. And at her new school, she doesn't know who to trust. Is queen bee Blair only being sweet because of Torrey's internet infamy? What about Raylene, who is decidedly unpopular, but seems accepts Torrey for who she is? And then there's Luis, with his brooding dark eyes, whose family runs the local funeral home. Torrey finds herself drawn to Luis, and his fascinating stories about El dio de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead.

As the Day of the Dead draws near, Torrey will have to really look at her own feelings about death, and life, and everything in between. Can she learn to mourn her sister out of the public eye?

Personal Thoughts 

Can't Look Away deals with a beauty YouTuber dealing with the grief and guilt that came along with the death of her younger sister. I was drawn into the book by the idea of a book narrated by a Youtuber. Can't Look Away gave an interesting insight to the life of one and while there were elements that bugged me, I really liked this book.

After an accident left Torrey without a sister, her family decided to move from Colorado to Texas for a fresh start. As expected, Torrey struggled with the not only her sister's passing away, but also moving into a new town. I really sympathized with Torrey at the beginning of the book. She and her sister didn't have the best kind of sibling relationship, but despite their differences and arguments, they undeniably loved each other. My heart broke for Torrey. I have a younger sister and just the thought of losing her is enough to crush my heart into bits. So, I understood and connected with Torrey as to that regard. However, I wasn't able to fully become in synch with Torrey's character. Different people handle grief differently. Torrey's outlet for her grief and guilt over the death of her sister was to do everything in order to become popular in her new school. That's where my connection with her severed. I just didn't understand her obsession with becoming popular, especially considering how she knew and constantly mentioned how vapid the popular girls at her new school were. That part of her just rubbed me the wrong way. I think what was worse for me, however, was how she treated her love interest, and a genuinely sweet guy, Luis, like utter crap in front of her new friends. It almost felt like she was ashamed to be seen interacting with him, despite him propelling her to slowly overcome her loss. That was just mean because Luis was a lovely character.

If it weren't for Luis, I would not have had enjoyed Can't Look Away as much as I did. He was a gem of character with how down-to-earth and caring he was. He had all the qualities that I enjoy in my book boyfriends. While Torrey herself wasn't as much of a likeable character for me, I did love her romance with Luis outside of the her treatment of him in front of her friends. It was sweet and the kind of relationship that was slow to develop in a realistic way. I loved how Luis was there to help guide her through this phase of her life. The romance was definitely the highlight of the book for me. Another thing that Can't Look Away did well was exploring the side effects that came with being a popular internet figure. It showed how fame didn't necessarily mean that everything was bright and rosy. There were some very hard moments that came along with having your entire life being exposed to the whole world and have them judge you based on that. I personally didn't have an idea of how life behind the camera could be rough for these public figures, so reading this book was an eye-opening experience.

Can't Look Away was a decent YA contemporary novel that I tackled an issue that I didn't know much about. It was eye-opening and had the main character been a bit more likeable, I would have pretty much loved it. Still, despite Torrey not being a character that will appeal to every reader, fans of tough issue contemporaries should give this book a shot.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 4/5
Characters : 3/5
Writing : 4/5

**Overall rating : 3.5/5**

 Thank you to NetGalley and Scholastic for the e-ARC of Can't Look Away.