Review: A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young

Pub. Date: June 21st 2011
Publisher: Balzer&Bray
Pages: 267
Readership: Young adult
Genres: paranormal, angels
Rating: ★★★★★ 

We all want to be remembered. Charlotte's destiny is to be Forgotten... 

Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger. 

But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend's arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become--her mark on this earth, her very existence--is in jeopardy of disappearing completely. 

Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny--no matter how dark the consequences

I'm not sure what book people read when they say it was meh, or they say that there was insta-love. It takes a special kind of book to make me feel like my heart was ripped out of my chest and sent through a paper shredder and still make me come away loving it.

A Need So Beautiful made me cry from probably the last 70 pages on. Let's start with what I liked about the novel, shall we?

The whole premise, the whole idea of the novel is a new spin on the Angel lore - if that's even what this is, it's hard to say for certain. The idea of The Forgotten. A messenger of the light, if you will, whose destiny is to help people she's compelled to - her Need - and to bring light to their lives until she fades away. Until everyone she's ever known, ever loved, ever met, forgets she even exists. Her existence will literally be erased once she's gone.

I really loved that Young skipped the whole boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy and girl skip off into the sunset idea. We come into the book with an already established relationship between Charlotte and Harlin. I loved that. I was so glad to see how much they loved each other, the plans they had for their future and we even got to see their first kiss. But then they just went and broke my heart. I also loved the supporting characters, even if we didn't see much of them. I loved little Alex and the insite we got into him, if brief. Mercy and Sarah. Young did a fantastic job of making me care for the little guys.

As great as the writing is, I'm not sure when these characters suddenly took a vice grip to my heart. One second I'm reading along, liking everyone just fine, and the next I'm halfway through the book and the tears are just rolling down my cheeks. Literally. I had to put the book down a few times to catch my breath and clear my blurry vision so I could actually continue on. A book hasn't made me cry this much since I read Never Let Me Go.

A Need so Beautiful made me think what I would do if I was in Charlotte's shoes. It made me wonder what would happen if I was a Forgotten. Would I accept my fate? Would I accept that my parents, all of my friends, anyone I've ever known would simply forget I existed? Go on like I never was at all? People - I - ponder that on a normal level. People toy with the idea of how long their memory will last after death. Who will remember you until they die? With who will you become just a fleeting memory? A whisper? Was I ever really anything to begin with? It's tough to think of that, but this book is all of that on a whole other level.

People need to read this book. It's beautiful and I'm sure the sequel, A Want so Wicked will be just as heartbreaking, if not more.