2016 Book #25 – Dreaming of Antigone by Robin Bridges

Title: Dreaming of Antigone
Author: Robin Bridges
Date finished: 3/23/16
Genre: Young adult
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: March 29, 2016
Pages in book: 304
Stand alone or series: There was an excerpt for the next book with Natalie as the protagonist so it seems to be a sort of connected series.
Where I got the book from: NetGalley NOTE: I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Andria’s twin sister, Iris, had adoring friends, a cool boyfriend, a wicked car, and a shelf full of soccer trophies. She had everything, in fact–including a drug problem. Six months after Iris’s death, Andria is trying to keep her grades, her friends, and her family from falling apart. But stargazing and books aren’t enough to ward off her guilt that she–the freak with the scary illness and all-black wardrobe–is still here when Iris isn’t. And then there’s Alex Hammond. The boy Andria blames for Iris’s death. The boy she’s unwittingly started swapping lines of poetry and secrets with, even as she tries to keep hating him.
Heartwrenching, smart, and bold, Dreaming of Antigone is a story about the jagged pieces that lie beneath the surface of the most seemingly perfect life…and how they can fit together to make something wholly unexpected.

My rating: 4.25 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book is about Andria, a junior in high school whose twin sister (Iris) died six months ago. Andria is still trying to cope with the loss of her sister and also the guilt she faces in not having done more to help her. Iris died of a drug overdose and Andria wishes that she had known her sister was falling down that particular rabbit hole before she died and that she could have done more to help Iris. Also Andria’s mother has become especially over protective since Iris’s death, though she has always been a bit over protective of Andria since she has epilepsy due to hypoxia. Alex Hammond returns to town from his stint at rehab (he was doing drugs with Iris the night she died) and Andria thinks that everything will work out just fine if she can avoid him. Unfortunately he seems to be there every time she turns around lately, and she doesn’t appreciate the butterflies she gets in her stomach when she sees him either.
Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot. I loved Andria’s character and, even though she wasn’t a big party goer because of her limitations due to epilepsy, I connected with her character a lot for feeling different from the rest of her friends and peers. I think that this books deals with a lot of hard issues too that face some teens today, as awful as that is. I also loved that this story intertwined poetry and astronomy into the story, I thought the poetry verses were beautiful and really added to the angst of young love within the story line. And Andria’s interest in astronomy was different and interesting and gave her character a quirky twist. I thought the relationships in this book were well-written, there was a ring of accuracy to the teen drama with the on and off romances and ebb and flow of friendships. The story really hooked me in too, I didn’t want to put it down. I’m looking forward to reading future books from this author!

The bottom line: I really liked this book a lot, I thought it covered a lot of hard topics that unfortunately teens today might face: drugs, abuse, illness, death, loss, and love. I loved Andria’s character and thought that the relationships between the characters was well written. I would definitely recommend this one.

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page