"Becoming Chloe" by Catherine Ryan Hyde

"How do you spell 'beautiful', Jordy?"
"B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l."
"Really? Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Okay. If you're sure. I know how to spell 'ugly.'"
Too bad. I would've liked it better the other way around. But I guess she hasn't had much practice on "beautiful." I guess it's one of those things that just never came up.

Jordy is by himself.
He's okay with this.
He's living in New York City without a job or a family.
It's just a bad week in his life.

And maybe it'd actually work out for him.
But then comes Chloe.

Chloe- or Wanda Johnston- looks like she should have the perfect world.
But if she had a perfect life, why would she be living in a cellar?
Why would she be okay with all the bad things that happen to her?

As Jordy takes Chloe into his care, he starts to realize that everything isn't right with her.
She needs help.
But if she won't talk to her therapist....
And she won't take the antidepressents...
What is he going to do?
And if he himself doesn't quite believe that the world is a beautiful place...
How can he convince Chloe that it is?

She jumps up and grabs me. The way I'd expect her to grab on if she was about to fall off a twenty-story building. Then again, maybe she is, and I'm just too blind to know it.
"I'm scared, Jordy."

I absolutely adored this book. I ended up rewriting my synopsis of the book multiple times because I couldn't do it justice.
This book is amazing.

First of all, the writing is pretty epic. It definitely sounds like young adult is saying it, but at the same time it's so poetic that it's beautiful just to read it. The author deals with some themes that I sort of find myself dealing with sometimes in my life, so that was very, very nice.

Secondly, I really like Jordy. I mean, Chloe was alright, but I really liked Jordy.
First of all, he's gay. This is very helpful for this book specifically, because it means it doesn't fall into the "girl and boy take roadtrip, they fall in love" sort of book. (Which, I admit, I thought it was going to be.)
Secondly... He's very realistic. I like that, too.
And lastly... He gives up so much to help Chloe, and he doesn't complain. But even though he doesn't mind that he's helping her (because she ends up being his best friend), he doesn't not appreciate the good things that come to him. I liked that.

Also, this book is so emotional. Especially at the end, I found my self crying, because it was just so perfect. It ended perfectly, but right before the end I felt like... "It's over. It's over. Their trip. They've come to their end of the road. And that's sad. But it's okay."
(I was going to say something here, but I realized that it would be a spoiler. So you're just going to have to read the book to find out sort of what I was going to say. ;) )