Hold Still
Realistic Fiction
Written By Nina LaCour
Reviewed by H. Hill
Rating 5 out of 5 Stars
“Dear Caitlin,
This is a real letter. I hope you get this far but I won’t get mad if you don’t want to read any of it. This is what I want so don’t be sad. You might be looking for reasons but there are no reasons. The sun stopped shining for me is all. The whole story is: I am sad. I am sad all the time and the sadness is so heavy that I can’t get away from it. Not ever.”
Caitlin doesn’t know how to keep herself going after he best friend, Ingrid, committed suicide. All of a sudden she has to deal with an unfamiliar life- a life without all the things she shared with her best friend. She finds it hard to move forward when she’s surrounded by all the places she and Ingrid used to go. It doesn’t help that Ms. Delani, the photography teacher Caitlin and Ingrid were really close to, is giving Caitlin the cold shoulder. Caitlin feels alone due to the fact that she withdraws from people due to Ingrid’s death. One day she finds Ingrid’s Journal under her bed. This journal shows Caitlin the side her friend was hiding. Through the letters in the journal Caitlin takes a ride through Ingrid’s life. Will Caitlin be able to get over this painful loss and move forward? “How does your life move forward when all you want to do is hold still?”
Hold Still is one of the only books I’ve ever cried over while reading. There is so much emotion that it pulls you in. It addresses the real life issues of depression and suicide. On the surface Ingrid seemed fine, but she was wearing a mask. Inside she was hurting terribly which shows how you never know how someone is truly feeling or what they’re going through. I would recommend this book to anyone who is willing to feel deeply and is interested in the subject of real life issues. This is a book that is to be taken seriously because suicide is a serious matter. Take a look into Caitlin’s life and travel through Ingrid’s in Hold Still.
