When We Collided by Emery Lord (review)

Vivi is well-named—everything about her screams exuberant vivacity. She breezes into the coastal town of Verona Cove like a breath of fresh air, bringing joy and laughter back into the lives of Jonah Daniels and his five siblings, who are grieving the death of their father and holding their lives together in the face of their mother’s depression. While Jonah frets about his awkwardness and tries to hide how hard things are at home, Vivi assures him that she’s acquainted with dark times and she won’t be scared off as Jonah and she fall in love. She’s not being completely honest, however, with herself or Jonah: she is bipolar and has stopped taking her lithium, with the result that her manic pixie energy is increasingly tinged with hypomanic symptoms. Eventually, her mania builds to a crisis that forces her to realize that she’s not ready to be the girl Jonah needs in the long term, even though she has been undeniably good for him up to this point. Alternating narration enables readers to get to know Jonah and Vivi as intimately as the pair knows themselves, which, as troubled sixteen-year-olds, isn’t all that well. Their kindness and likability shine forth clearly, though, and render their love story all the more poignant. Earnest Jonah responds heroically to both his mother and Vivi while remaining absolutely credible as a character who is exhausted, worried, and committed to keeping his family safe. Vivi is who we wish we were on our best days, making her fears that her disorder will ruin her life nothing short of heartbreaking. These are definitely two teens worth rooting for in a tale that’s several clicks above the usual frothy summer romance fare.