Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

Title: Pushing the Limits
Author: Katie McGarry
Published July 31st 2012 by Harlequin Teen
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Pushing the Limits was what I expected but at the same time it wasn’t. I mean I knew it was going to be a deep read, but somehow it managed to still surprise me.

My favorite part was the characters, they were very well done and even if I didn’t agree with their choices, I accepted them because in the course of the book I got to know them and their personalities.

The main characters are Echo and Noah. Echo is been having a tough time since her big brother died while serving for the marines, and then, adding to the tragedy, there’s the mysterious accident with her bipolar mother that wiped her memory clean of the reason she bears so many scars (both internal and external), now she can’t remember the reason why her life got so screwed up in the first place. I liked Echo, I like that she wanted to hold on to the memory of the way her family was before, because I know I would have done that too. I liked that she still had hope for her mother, because there’s almost nothing in the world that can eradicate the love for a mother. Her actions were believable, if slightly annoying sometimes.

Now Noah, I still can’t decide about him. Let’s review the facts:

·         He used to be a popular jock with a great life.

·         Then his parents died at a house fire, but he and his little brothers survived.

·         He became a foster kid and got separated from his brothers.

·         His foster parents were very screwed up.

·         He is in danger of losing his brothers to the system.

·         He became an angry dude with a filthy mouth.

For all he’s been through, my heart warmed for him right away. But then he opened that mouth! It was hard to concentrate on his story when he was such a jerk all the time! I wanted to be all like “aww come here” but his next words would make want to run away from him and wash my hands. I get his life, really, I feel you, Noah; but being nasty just makes things worse. And makes it difficult to sympathize with you.

The story of Echo’s accident, the reason for her extremely scarred arms, was also an attention grabbing part of the book. Because Echo doesn’t remember that, so all through the book you see glimpses of what happened and you start making theories of course. My theories were right but I still enjoyed the ride. BUT! And don’t mind this but, being the huge nerd that I am, I am still unsure of how she got the scars… spoiler: there’s no way her arms could have gotten those scars just because of a fall, even if she fall in 50,000 pieces of glass, they pieces would have just stuck to her skin, not made jagged, long scars. And even then, the would have been in the back of her arms, not in front, so no one would have been able to see them from the front, but suspiciously they were there… or maybe I just remember wrong? I am writing this review like 2 months after I read this.

So, even though I enjoyed this book, quite frankly, I can’t rate it 5 stars because of reasons.

Reason 1 is a spoiler, so highlight if you want to know: WHAT?! He didn’t get to keep his brothers! Pardon me if I want a happy ending in my books! God knows there’s not enough of them in real life ):

Reason 2: yeah you guessed it, Noah’s crudeness was a major turn off for me.

Reason 3: Too many issues here, it was on the edge of unbelievable, these characters could not catch a break.

That’s it.

Overall, an enjoyable read and great debut. I'm looking forward to more from the author.

I loved this scene, Echo was on a date with some weirdo but then something happened and she ended up with Noah.
Who shared his food (aww) because Echo being Echo forgot her money :/