Words in Deep Blue Hardcover – June 6, 2017

My 12 year old daughter received this as a gift. A librarian recommended to us, but my daughter brought it to me yesterday and said she liked the story so far, but didn't want to finish it because it swore a lot, and said the F * word often and she didn't like reading that. Pretty unfortunate, and probably unnecessary, but kids get enough of that language at school and I guess she wants a break from it when she is reading, and I don't blame her. I wish the librarian had told me about that when she recommended the book for my 12 year old. The story might be great, but she will never know bc the language got in the way. Too bad.

How disappointing.I was really looking forward to reading this book. I loved the storyline and premise, I loved the idea of letters being exchanged within books. But God, the characters were extremely one-dimensional. They fell flat, they brought out zero emotion in me. I just wanted to finish the book as quickly as possible.The only thing that really touched me was the death of Rachel's brother and her dealing with it. However, her obsession with Henry and Henry's obsession with Amy was just...wrong. I mean Amy is so obviously not nice, and the fact that Henry couldn't see it is just...stupid. It really annoys me. It was so annoying. Extremely so. And I am not talking few months or 1 year, but years...years of this stupidity. Like get it together man. It was such a turn off. I couldn't get over it.And then he suddenly decides he's into Rachel? And after all these years, he finally figures out that Rachel had left him a love letter before she left and Amy had kept it, and oh my God, he didn't even get angry with Amy? And Rachel just went and forgave him in a heartbeat, and just the whole freaking ending was a mess.This whole book was a mess. Nope. I'm not onboard. I'm sorry.

Perfect! This book is so beautiful that I don't think any review will be fair, but I will try.Words in Deep Blue is just another book about finding the things that make life bearable after everything else ends. What makes it unique is that it doesn't focus on the end but the life after it happens. Rachel needs to figure out a way to (forcefully at first) find meaning to life and moves back to the past; a city full of old friends, old memories of the things that once mattered, and Henry, the best friend she misses to death but doesn't deserve an ounce of her attention. When she is forced to live again, she's surprised to gain her smile back without feeling guilt.I fell in love with every detail of this story, so deliciously slow while having the perfect pace, feeling as if the book is me and I am it, transmigrating who I am to all the underlined quotes and little hearts left on its margin. I was really surprised to find a different narrator voice that is making me to want more; I am so happy I came across this book and gave it a chance. This is (I think) the first Aussie writer book I read and I am definitely looking forward for more.

I couldn't wait to see how it ended but the story is so good I didn't want it to end. I’ve read some 800 books in my life and Words in Deep Blue is in my Top Five! The book is about love, loss, death, grieving, divorce and discovery, striving for dreams or settling for what’s determined practical, how endings become beginnings, and how humans are so much more than what we see in the surface and how we carry our past hurt into each present and person we interact with. It’s a story of rebirth and transmigrating too. It’s all told on a used bookstore as people handwrite letters to each other and leave them in pages of the books. It’s an annotation jubilee.It’s the greatest unrequited love story I’ve ever read. I finished it early this morning, and in the fashion of the book, I wrote a letter to the author in the format of how her characters write to each other in her book. And the author of my top five favorite books just wrote me back! Words are fun. Words make our world. Thank you, Cath Crowley, for using your words to make my world better. GO GET THIS BOOK and gobble it up like I did. If you’ve ever sent love that wasn’t returned, ever felt love but fear kept you from expressing it, ever lost someone you loved and lost yourself in the grieving process, pick up these pages of Words in Deep Blue. Words hurt, but words also heal.

THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING. OMG. I've always believed that words are the most powerful things we have and this book proves that. Yes it's got your basic boy, girl love lost storyline but there's so much more to this story. There are so many powerful qoutes and it's literally set in a bookstore. The characters are avid readers who love words and believe in the power of them. I don't want to give anything away because I didn't know much going in and it made it all the better. All book lover should read this one at some point. I mean is there anything better than reading about people who love books a much as you do?

A book for those of us who love books. A book for those of us who are grieving. A book for those of us in love. A book of friendships. A book about letting go. A book about the sea and it's beauty. A book about science and poetry. I CANNOT recommend this book enough. The prose and dialogue are masterful. Beyond masterful. Read this book.

"Love of the things that make you happy is steady too - books, words, music, art - these are lights that reappear in a broken universe."I don't have a lot of words to describe how much I loved, loved, loved this novel. It is about books and words and life and loss - it is about seizing the moment and choosing your future, and living your life to the fullest. That is what it was, to me.This is one of those stories that I know I'll have to read again because it was just so dang beautiful. For now, I recommend this read to all.

This one totally took me by surprise, as all the best stories should. It takes what should be a fairly straightforward boy and girl love story, elevating it with a quality of writing and clever plotting into a really memorable book, one which stays with you long after reading.The characters of Henry and Rachel and explored through dual first-person narration, often overlapping scenes from each perspective, losing none of the intrigue in doing so. Rachel is the logical, scientific mind, while Henry of the family who runs the bookshop is the romantic dreamer, so romantic that he’s blinded by a residual infatuation with another girl, Amy.The most interesting passages in Words in Deep Blue come in the form beautiful, flowing prose in describing scenes such as Cal and Rachel’s discussion of sea creatures, the author’s description of the sea, and more abstract concepts like what happens to a person’s soul after they die.Added to this are several other layers. Henry’s sister’s narrative is particularly poignant as it unfolds, sometimes in the back ground but in and out of Henry and Rachel’s scenes.The foundation or the backdrop for all of this is Howling Books, the bookshop that Henry’s family work and live in. The lives of all the characters are inherently linked to books and the bookshop, even those on the periphery of the story, such as Frederick, a regular customer, whose own seemingly innocuous tale becomes very affecting.Above all, Words in Deep Blue is concerned with concepts such as the law of attraction. Characters write their thoughts and yearnings and dreams in the margins of books in one section of the bookshop, in the hopes that their messages will find someone and mean something. This theme rings true as the story outside the bookshop unfolds.Words in Deep Blue is a really eloquently written story, and deserves all the praise it gets.

"I know you understand what I mean. I can see it in your face. There comes a time when the non-grievers go back to life, even some of the grievers, and you're left trying to comprehend the incomprehensible."If there ever was or ever has been a love letter to book lovers then Words In Deep Blue is just that. So many things standout as the perfect thing to be written and resonate within my soul. The grief, the love, the questions and never ending answers.I made so many notes and marked many uncountable quotes but ultimately I can't find the words to describe what this book meant to me. Thank you Cath for writing a truly beautiful book....

I don’t really know what to say about this book. I read it in a day because I saw someone reading it and it was an awesome book to sit outside and just read. I’m not going to analyse it to pieces but the only thing I disliked was how they skipped over the part where Henry and Martin got abducted, because I feel like it could have gone more in depth about it, but I enjoyed every other aspect about it. I especially enjoyed how, although it revolves around the bookshop, it recognises how the logical thing was for it to close down and it was done gracefully.

as a hopeless romantic and someone who has lost a loved one recently, this book changed my life. it showed me that there is life after death and hopeafter darkness. ‘words in deep blue’ is beautifully written, heart warming and will stay with me long after i am gone.

Until today I had never really lost anyone. Although it didn’t affect me directly, as we were never close, I thought of the people it would affect. This book couldn’t have came at a greater time it has made me understand grieving and love in a fabulous new light. The story between the two lovers is so real and honest and beautiful.