I didn’t know how I’d ever extricate her from myself. It would take somewhere between a long time and never. And really, if her dad was going to live here and she was going to visit, it leaned more toward never. She might always be my phantom limb. She might always hurt.

i read this first in summer of 2017.
reread was november 2020.
3.5/5
i think it's a beautiful depiction of grief-- similar to i'll give you the sun. some parts felt more juvenile than others, but the author does a good job of writing about how working through trauma doesn't bring the absence of hard things.

So disappointed that I didn't like my first read of 2018. :/ The only redeeming qualities of this book are as follows:

1. Dara, because she's freaking awesome.
2. It was a quick read, at least for me.

That's it.

I know some people who would really enjoy this novel. Unfortunately, I guess it just wasn't for me.

Oh wow, I was not expecting this to be so good.

It's got a lot to love, honestly.

1) A tough-as-nails amputee Dara (who lost half her arm in a shark attack)
2) Swimming! Lots of swimming!
3) The friendship between our MC (Otis) and Dara was really incredible - it's really complicated but they look out for each other, and I think strong friendships like this are SO important in YA
4) Childhood sweethearts who meet again after three years - Meg's moved away because of the death of Otis' little brother, and there's a lot of pain there. But all their memories and their knowledge of each other is SO SWEET.
5) It was really nice to have a male POV that wasn't just...masturbation jokes (I am not joking, I have read so many like this)
6) Just...it's really good, okay?

This was a really amazing book that shows you the different ways that people deal with grief. We have Otis who avoids the truth to keep himself from crumbling, Otis's mom who dwells on her loss and is unable to move on quickly, Meg who has to put things out of sight and out mind in order to be able to cope, and Dara who becomes angry at the world for what it took from her.

The characters were real and I had a connection with them. I found myself rooting for them and hoping they'd be able to find a way to move on and live better lives. The story had good pacing, not too fast and not too slow. The plot was always interesting and things were happening to move the story forward. The only things about the book that dulled my enjoyment were that the setting was Chicago but the story did not feel like it took place there at all and the ending seemed like it was going to be perfect until the last page when Meg changed her mind about where she wanted to live.

Overall this book really was great and I'd strongly recommend people read it.

An interesting and well-crafted character piece about broken people who can't let go of the past, I liked Phantom Limbs. But, I didn't love it.

I found Otis, the main character, to be kind of unlikeable and a bit obnoxious. He was pretty possessive of the girl he was sweet on, Meg, and got very friendzoney with her. Meg herself never really came together for me as a character either. Dara, the one armed, possibly lesbian, former champion swimmer was definitely the scene-stealer here. Her relationship with Otis was what I found most compelling--their somewhat unhealthy codependence being used to distract themselves from their other problems.

The writing was good, the pacing was fine and the admittedly tragic subject matter was handled with a gentle hand. I just wasn't a huge fan of the central romance, or either of the characters attached to it.

This book wasn't that great the second time around....

so, i LOVED this book!
and i gave it a pretty lengthy review over on my blog.
hop on over to read spoilers, if you want too and CLEARLY noted, as well as my review.
but lets just say i talked for a while about my love for this book.

i will freaking miss otis and dara!


http://lovewhatyouread14.blogspot.com/2016/10/phantom-limbs-paula-garner_13.html

I enjoyed this messy, complicated, gritty and often heart-breaking book very much.

I read Relative Strangers and really liked the writing style, so I wanted to check out more by Garner. This book was multifaceted and had so many storylines going at once, but they all worked together beautifully. The characters were deep and diverse, and it covered so many issues that aren’t covered in YA - or fiction, period - at all. Limb loss, child loss, grief of all different sorts… Wonderful.