Review: With Love From the Inside by Angela Pisel

Title: With Love From the Inside
Author: Angela Pisel
Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction
Source: Free ARC from G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Rating: A

Note: As stated under the Source (above), I received this book for free from G.P. Putnam’s Sons in exchange for my honest review (and trust me, honest is always what you’ll get).

Review: In a word: gut-wrenching. From cover to cover, it is exquisite and insightful, and, in equal measures, infuriating. Or rather, the subject matter and the painfully realistic ending are infuriating. The writing is wonderfully emotive, evoking a visceral response to all that the characters suffer. So much loss, so much injustice, and it’s all so enragingly consistent with the failings of our legal system, and really, the failings of our humanity.

But. It is also so much about love and forgiveness. About rising to the occasion and letting our circumstances provide us an opportunity to be more and do better. It’s about accepting when a situation is out of our hands, realizing that worrying and blaming and being angry changes nothing and helps no one. Life is unfair and the worst can happen to those who least deserve it, but even in the end, we get to choose how we want to live in the world, what we want to leave behind, and what kind of feeling we want to leave with. It’s about always operating out of a place of love and forgiveness and empathy. Especially when it’s hardest to do so.

I did not blubber through this whole book. I did at the end, and I dare you to even try not to. This is not an easy, light, fun read. It is emotional and serious and painful and may very well make you want to scream at the injustice of it all, but it just might make you think about your own life perspective, it might change the way you feel about the system as it is.

I love books that help you to empathize with those who, on the surface, seem not to deserve our empathy or understanding. We all need to remember that there are many sides to every story and all of those sides are worthy of our consideration. And that love is always the right answer.

 

One Reply to “Review: With Love From the Inside by Angela Pisel”

  1. Pingback: 2016 ARC August | Mad Book Love

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