I wanted to love this book so much. I had been putting it off for so long, but I couldn't love it like I wanted to. I don't know if I picked it up at the wrong time in my life, or if I would have felt the same regardless of when I read this but it makes me sad.

It took me three months to even finish this book, reading it on and off. While I was reading it, for the most part, I enjoyed every moment but when I put it down I never had any urge to pick it back up and it was always a struggle to get myself to do it. Eventually, I just had to pick up the audiobook and finish it that way. I should have probably done that from the beginning. 

I will say that this book is beautifully written. The writing is lyrical and poetic. I appreciate what V.E Schwab was trying to do and the messages she wanted to convey. I loved seeing the relationship dynamics between Addie and Luc and Addie and Henry and the themes of living and dying and the value of time in a life but the actual enjoyment of reading this book wasn't fully there. The best way I can explain it is a long, difficult-to-read classic that you know is important and you can appreciate it for what it was trying to do but ultimately you just couldn't enjoy reading it.