A few weeks ago, I was looking for something new to read and decided to look on Bookshare whether authors I’d previously enjoyed, had had books released that I hadn’t yet read. It turned out Erin Stewart had. The Words We Keep was already released a few months ago, but I hadn’t yet known about it. Its blurb immediately appealed to me, as I am myself a mental health consumer and I love poetry. Here’s my review.
Summary
It’s been three months since The Night on the Bathroom Floor–when Lily found her older sister Alice hurting herself. Ever since then, Lily has been desperately trying to keep things together, for herself and for her family. But now Alice is coming home from her treatment program and it is becoming harder for Lily to ignore all of the feelings she’s been trying to outrun.
Enter Micah, a new student at school with a past of his own. He was in treatment with Alice and seems determined to get Lily to process not only Alice’s experience, but her own. Because Lily has secrets, too. Compulsions she can’t seem to let go of and thoughts she can’t drown out.
When Lily and Micah embark on an art project for school involving finding poetry in unexpected places, she realizes that it’s the words she’s been swallowing that desperately want to break through.
My Review
This story is told entirely from Lily’s point of view in first person perspective. I like that, as it shows Lily’s innermost thoughts and experiences through her own eyes. Interspersed are Lily’s made-up words (which took me a while to figure out weren’t actually real English words) and her poems. These aren’t particularly excellent, but they definitely give me a glimpse into her world too. Besides, my poetry as a teen (or even now) is probably worse.
Even though this book deals with heavy subject material, I really wanted it to be a feel-good read too. In this sense, some of the twists I didn’t see coming, disappointed me a little, but they were also important to the overall story.
I really liked Erin Stewart’s writing style of alternating between storytelling and such vignettes as poetry or Lily’s made-up words.
Overall, I gave this book five stars on Goodreads, but I would’ve given it 4.5 stars if Goodreads did half stars. The reason is the disappointment I felt at some of the plot twists. This book really gave me a bit of a book hangover.
Book Details
Title: The Words We Keep
Author: Erin Stewart
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: March 15, 2022
A Multitude of Musings 
Could you define “book hangover”?
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Oh, sorry for not clarifying. It means that a book has such an emotional impact on the reader that it’s hard to let go. At least, that’s what I believe it means. It’s commonly used in the book blogosphere, but I never actually asked what it means either, LOL.
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Thank you.
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Sounds like an interesting book. Would you go back to it in the future?
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I don’t know, as to be honest I rarely if ever reread books.
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I quite like the sound of this book. Never read anything by Erin Stewart before.
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I’m glad you think you may like this one. I read her other book too and loved it, which is what inspired me to check out this one.
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Never read it! seems like a great book to read. I am planning to visit a book fair in few days and I just know what to do in my kitty
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Oh, that book fair sounds amazing! Hope you enjoy it.
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This sounds like a very interesting book, especially that it is written from Lily’s point of view. I would like to read it, keeping in mind that is very emotional.
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Yes, the subject matter is certainly emotive. I’m glad you’re considering reading the book nonetheless.
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