A Need So Beautiful by Suzanne Young Publisher: Balzer & Bray (June 21st, 2011) Reading Level: Young Adult Hardcover: 252 pages Source: ARC tour Rating: 5 of 5 stars 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.
There have been others before who’ve felt the Need, but they’re gone—erased from the memories of everyone whose lives they had touched. It's as though they never existed. This is the fate that awaits Charlotte. But the last thing Charlotte wants to do is disappear, to be Forgotten. She wants to stay with her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. She wishes she could just ignore the Need, but she can’t. And as everyone important in her life begins to slowly forget her, she has to decide if she’ll fight the Need in order to remain herself—no matter how dark the consequences.
Review: This story is breathtakingly beautiful inside and out. I laughed, I cried, and I connected with the characters in a way that is rare and wonderful. Charlotte has not had an easy life. She's been in a foster family since she was young and has no real memory of where she came from. She has the Need, a driving force that leads her to helping complete strangers. She doesn't know where it will take her, or what she will face while she's there but the urge can't be stopped. Once she's at her destination, she gives the person a message that, in a major way, will change their destiny.
Charlotte is realistic in a sense that she is not perfect, but her personality takes amazing form throughout the book. She might be an angel but she is far from having an angelic personality. She is head-over-heals in love with her boyfriend, Harlin. Once you read this story, it's easy to see why. Harlin is intense, caring, and swoon-worthy beyond many male characters I have read about. His love for Charlotte is deep and meaningful. I never questioned their intense love and affection for one another. I knew from the beginning how they could have been so drawn to each other.
Harlin helps Charlotte in ways no other character could. He wants to be her protector but knows she is keeping something from him. For Charlotte, confiding her dark secret to Harlin is a scary thought. This brings conflict in the story because beyond Charlotte's true identity, she has lived her life as a normal teenage girl in all other aspects. The changes occurring in Charlotte's life, physically and mentally, are having her question her own destiny.
Several other characters help to perfectly round out this story. Her best friend Sarah brings in a great dynamic and her foster family, although rarely seen, help the reader grasp the other parts of Charlotte's life. Throughout the story Charlotte learns more about her identity and it brings her life to a halt. The thought that she could be forgotten, forever, is something she can't begin to grasp.
Suzanne Young's writing paints a clear picture of a girl fighting to survive. A girl who doesn't want her friends and family to forget she ever existed. A Need So Beautiful forces the reader through several emotions as they feel what Charlotte goes through during her journey. This is an angel story like no other, and I'm excited to see where Suzanne Young takes us during the next installment.
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