Abducted By Love Is The Higher Law

I read Love is the Higher Law as part of my 

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THE HEADLINE: New York City, Sept. 11th 2001. Billions of lives changed forever. Here are three of those stories.

THE ABDUCTOR: Of all the main characters my favorite by far was Peter. Mostly just because he was the most likable of the three. He was very much the "everyday" type character who turned to music for his healing.

TIME IN CAPTIVITY: I have always been slightly hesitant to read this book because I rightly assumed this book would be overflowing with emotions, and since I easily cry at everything, I assumed this book would be beyond depressing.
However, I am glad to say that on that account I was wrong.

Love is the Higher Law is split between three perspectives for the narration; Claire, Jasper, and Peter. So the first three chapters were pretty shaky for me because that was when each character told their story of where they were when the planes crashed and the towers fell. Of course those stories are going to bring up emotions and memories of that day for any reader. But that was really the only part of the book that was emotional for me. The rest was their story of recovery.

I said earlier that my favorite character was Peter because I was really rooting for him. But the flip side of that would be why didn't I like the other two.

Well, I think I didn't like Claire as much because she left me unsettled. Claire responded to that days tragic events by jumping up and doing something about it. She volunteered, she got involved. She educated herself about the world around her and took charge as best she could in her community. I think she unsettled me because in an ideal world I would like to say that I would do the same, but I know that isn't true.

No, if I had been in New York that day I can pretty much guarantee I would have reacted the way Jasper did. Jasper reacted with anger. He didn't go around punching walls or seeking revenge, I don't mean that kind of anger. But you could just tell that he felt so violated by what had happened and his anger and bitterness towards that day reacted in him withdrawing from the people around him and just not really caring. Which is not to say that Jasper was a bad guy, because he wasn't. It just unsettled me because I could see so much of myself in those coping mechanisms.

In the end I loved the way that David Levithan gave each of these characters their own path and their own redemption, and the way he intertwined them through out all of it.

PICK UP LINE:

I feel emptier this morning. That empty space goes inside. It is not the whole story, but it is a part of it. And the rest of the story is: We love and we feel and we try and we hope.

POINT OF ABDUCTION: For me the point of abduction was right at the beginning, reading how the events unfolded for each character. It is crazy for me to think that there are teenagers out there in the world reading this book who don't remember the events of that day because they were so young when it happened. But the way that Levithan hits the ground running with each  of their stories sucks you right into that day.

ABDUCTION RATING:

Highly emotional but there isn't an author out there that I would trust more to write about that day.