Review: Get It Together Delilah by Erin Gough

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I feet like this book has more potential to be greater than what it was from how I felt when I finished the book. I feel like Delilah is the type of character that could’ve been such a great example based on her experiences in the book but the supporting elements around her story made things fall a bit short for me. By no means is that an indicator of my perception of the book for my interest, rather that some things I wish could’ve been done different for me to connect better. Let chats about the book.
 
The book was about about a 17 year old named Deliliah. She is in her last year of school and an unfortunate situation that happened between her and another student, left her feeling uncomfortable with going anymore. Her mom decided to leave her family for another man, leaving her dad heartbroken with his life revolving area his café. Delilah convinced him to go away, which lasted a really long time. She made the decision to leave school and run the shop which in the process she learns a lot of life and falling in love.
 
Despite how much I enjoyed the characters and their involvement with each other, I couldn’t love them or fall in love with them. I felt like there were elements to their story that were not needed or wish it could’ve been more elaborated on. Maybe certain aspects of their storyline could've been more cohesive at parts. To me it felt like different elements of the book were free floating. This isn’t a bad thing but this drove me crazy because for the message that this book has, it took just made me a bit frustrated because I had question marks.
 
Let’s take Delilah. Here’s this 17 year old, who is struggling with her sexuality. She is dedicated and committed to helping her father in his business and wants to do the right thing. Now, we have a situation where bullying is involved and she is humiliated based on her involvement with a friend who was embarrassed by any association of being involved with her romantically. There is a video made and she is made to feel worthless, ashamed and isolation for who she is/likes. This drives her decision not to go to school anymore with an extra influence from her friend Charlie. She sort of just floats through the book alone like this.
 
What drives me crazy is how does a 17 year live alone for an extended period of time, run a business, not go to school without anything happening? Her father going away for a few days or maybe a week might be ok but he was gone a long time to where she missed an extended period of school with no contact? I know teens are more independent these days but there was a lot going on with her running a business dealing with all these adult issues with no one to help her. Now, I know to be fair there are many family businesses that the teens can do it but in the context of the story, this was a bit much. This was a bit of a reach in my imagination because for everything she was struggling with I just kept thinking, all this is happening and no parental figure.
 
Here was a chance I would’ve loved to read more involvement from her father. A single dad, raising a girl going through what she went through, this would’ve made me feel something especially when she finds love, more realistic. This is such a positive book representing all sides of a young adult who is part of the LBGT community. It would’ve been amazing not seeing this character quit school but have some support of someone in her corner to know that she is loved. This would've come full circle with the experience with her teacher in the end and would've been more impactful.
 
Another thing was her friend Charlie. I couldn’t stand him. Here’s another young person without any adults around. He has made some really bad choices but is sort of just living life too. There is something that happens between the two of them in the book that I don’t understand how it happened. It just happened. It could’ve happened but in the context of the story, I don’t know why it happened. It was so random and unexpected which could’ve been left out. There’s another situation where he gets into a situation that in reality would’ve had different consequences, nothing happens. I sort of felt like with him, there was no accountability for his characters for what he did. I don’t have a problem with who he was as a character but some of the situations for me just seem not realistic. I just can’t grasp some of the things that he did, didn’t have consequences despite being a flawed character.
 
The book absorbed so much on the issues the café was having which I wish didn’t take so much of the book. It would’ve been nice having this book elaborate more on Delilah's personal journey in her discovering love and dealing with the social backlash of her being gay and going through the bullying and the discrimination. She was made to be ashamed of falling in love with someone and through humiliation it drove her to give up school. Then, she meets someone else who she falls for but the other person is afraid to pursue her feeling backs because of how it would shame her family. This I wish could’ve been explored more because so many people could’ve identified with this.
 
Overall, the book had some moments that could’ve been pushed a little deeper to shine brighter. Not to take away from anything there were moments that I thought were just ok. This isn't a bad thing, just I had bigger hopes for what I thought this was going to be. Now, the reviews on this book are a mixed bag so it's up to you what your takeaway and thoughts will be if you decided to read it. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either. I'm honestly going to tell you that I'm somewhere in the middle. Leaving on a positive note, I'd love to explore this author in the future because even though I didn't fall in love with this book, her characters had such engaging personalities that I'd love to check out what else she has to offer.