THERE WILL COME A TIME
Mark knows grief. Ever since the accident that killed his twin sister, Grace, the only time he feels at peace is when he visits the bridge on which she died. Comfort is fleeting, but it’s almost within reach when he’s standing on the wrong side of the suicide bars. Almost.
Grace’s best friend, Hanna, says she understands what he’s going through. But she doesn’t. She can’t. It’s not just the enormity of his loss. As her twin, Mark should have known Grace as well as he knows himself. Yet when he reads her journal, it’s as if he didn’t know her at all.
As a way to remember Grace, Hanna convinces Mark to complete Grace’s bucket list from her journal. Mark’s sadness, anger, and his growing feelings for Hannah threaten to overwhelm him. But Mark can’t back out. He made a promise to honor Grace—and it’s his one chance to set things right.
ABOUT CARRIE
Carrie Arcos is a National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature for OUT OF REACH. She lives in Los Angeles with her family. THERE WILL COME A TIME will be available May 6, 2014.
Jaime’s Thoughts
There Will Come a Time by Carrie Arcos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
3.5 stars
No matter who is getting up early to go to work, no matter what work is being done, no matter what fights people are having, no matter what happiness, or sorrow. Life keeps going.
Are you still a twin if you lose the person who is basically the other half of you?
That’s the question that Mark struggles with these days. Losing his twin sister, Grace, in a car accident has him filled with guilt and regret and second guesses, Mark has to go on with his life but he isn’t sure how he’s going to do that.
Enter Hanna, Grace’s best friend, and the girl who lives across the street. When a journal of Grace’s is recovered that includes a bucket list of things that Grace wanted to do… things that she was afraid of doing… Hanna suggests completing the list in honor of her and Mark grudgingly agrees.
As Mark reads through Grace’s journal though, he realizes that maybe he didn’t know his twin as well as he thought, and the anger and sadness that he fights to make sense of everything and his growing feelings for Hanna are overwhelming.
I’m a twin. I don’t know if you know this about me, and so I went into this book expecting great big sobs simply because the premise of this story is … a nightmare. Something I can’t even imagine … something I don’t WANT to imagine.
I didn’t sob, but there were definite spots where the sadness and anger that Mark felt threatened to overwhelm even me. I think that these parts are really well done and quite realistic. The survivor’s guilt that Mark experiences, the anger that he felt, Arcos writes it in a way that makes the reader experience it too.
I really enjoyed Arcos writing style and there were some passages that I highlighted just because I loved the way they sounded…
They say grief is an ocean measured in waves and currents, rocking and tossing you about like a boat stranded in the middle of the deep. But this is not true. Grief is a dull blade against the skin of your soul it takes time doing its work.
I think ultimately, I wanted more about Mark’s family though and how and what they were doing to cope with the loss. Mark is Filipino which in itself is unique in YA, but we only get brief glimpses into that life… mentions of food and certain family members, but it doesn’t really delve any deeper than a scratch on the surface.
Arcos has created a story of grief and sadness, yes, but there is also hope and happiness. It’s a story of forgiving yourself and moving forward even when it’s the last thing you think you should do. If you’re looking for a touching story of family and friendship, definitely pick this one up.
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