The Last Little Blue Envelope

*I am afraid there might be some slight spoilers in this review, though I tried to keep them to an absolute minimum as the novel has not yet been published.

To say I loved 13 little blue envelopes would be somewhat of an understatement It had everything a YA novel should have in my opinion: a mystery, a trip and a wonderful British boy. How could you not love a novel with all that, as well as the wonderfully witty language of Maureen Johnson.

I was recently given the opportunity to read an ARC copy of the sequel The Last Little Blue Envelope, and much thanks to NetGalley.com for that. I practically opened the document and began reading as soon as I got home, and wrapped in a blanket I didn’t stop until I was finished.

It did not take long before I lost myself completely in the novel. Maureen Johnson has a way of writing that could win even the coldest heart over. It’s realistic, it’s funny and it’s adventurous. The characters and the settings simply feel so alive, there is really no other way of describing it. Ginny, an already familiar character, simply blossomed up in my mind as if she had never left.

But, I am sad to say, when I kept reading, the novel disappointed me. When I finished it, I could understand that it had nothing to do with Johnson’s writing, for that I love more than anything. Instead what bothered me was the plot. I just wanted a different end. I wanted to choose.

Of course, as a writer myself, I know that sometimes things do not work out for your characters, and what you want to happen, is not always what should happen to them in order for the plot to continue. So I was upset. I was almost a little angry. I did not like the ending, as it was not the one I had chosen. The hopeless romantic in me did not approve! But when I considered it again, and (with a sigh) I had to admit that Johnson is brilliant, and that she knows exactly what she is doing when she writes.

In the novel Maureen Johnson writes about how coming back to a place, you can change or even remove what was there before, and I think this was what the novel was mostly about. How you grow, and how this growth might render you incapable of returning to the past. It reminds me of The Great Gatsby and how Gatsby wanted to relive the past. There are times when you simply cannot live in the past, when you have to move on.

When I realized this, I went back to re-read the second half of the novel. Everything that had bothered me before now made sense. I understand why Johnson chose of plot, and I loved it. Ginny is a teenager, and her love with Keith was that of a first love. Their kiss was a first kiss. It’s a time of changing for many of us, and when you have changed, there is no going back.

There were so many things about the novel that I want to tell you, and though I can’t share them (spoilers!) I must say that having Harry Potter and Doctor Who references on the same page just made me love Maureen Johnson even more.

Did I love this novel? Yes. At first I thought the dislike would take over, that my anger over the novel not ending the way I wished would simply ruin it for me. But I changed my mind, and I closed the document with a smile, with a closure even, I suppose. As much as I love Ginny and the adventures she’s been away on, I really do believe this series is ending here, with a happy ending. And even though the ending might not be what we had hoped… don’t we all just love a happy ending?