Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Ne3rdy Shique Universe! It’s time for another book review and this book was a hard one to sit through and you will see why!

Title: Once in Lourd
Author: Sharon Solwitz

Disclaimer: This review is based on opinion and observation. Please respect the thoughts and feelings of the writer since this is a pretty honest review. There might be spoilers and if you don’t like the topics of what may be discussed there are other book reviews on this blog to check out.

Description: In this book, we meet four teens who are living in Lourd, Michigan during 1968 during the Vietnam War. They face many hardships in their own lives and decided to make a pledge to either take their lives on a bluff after two weeks or enter adulthood. These four, Vira, Kate, C. J., and Saint will live for each other until their own day comes and see how their lives changed and see how they either take a pledge to take their lives or decide to not do it in the end.

Thoughts: Oh man! This was a very hard read! I almost didn’t want to finish reading it but knowing this was set in a time in the past where things are different from what we are facing now in America I felt like I was standing in Kate’s shoes. Yes, there were heartfelt moments but other times there were times I wanted to close up Kindle and leave it alone and want to read something else, which I did at night with more of a lighthearted book (Accidentally Married to a Vampire, sorry!)

I admit I definitely relate to Kate the most because…well…recently I went through a day where my older brother got on me about dieting and if you guys have seen my videos I didn’t look fat since I did struggle with weight when I was younger and I did lose a lot of weight over time. My parents are diabetic and I do have a thyroid problem but here is the thing I have a different diet from most and I have to make sure I have Vitamin D incorporated into it to keep those levels up while making sure I don’t fall victim as well. My brother is in the military so he doesn’t know what I do on a daily basis or what I eat. With Kate, I know how it feels because I’ve been in the overweight blues even how her stepmother ripped her apart in the book at one point after she was at a tennis session and her stepmother got a call about her missing slime classes that she forced her to do. I admit I tried doing exercise videos and that didn’t help much in the past.I even remembered how I did have pints of ice cream everyday but did tone it down over years and same with other sweets and plus I rarely think about food unless I am hungry. Just hand me a bottle of water for the day and I am good until the next meal or snacktime.

I think Solwitz was pretty much painting the picture of what is like to ive in 1968 where not only you get to see old days of sports to seeing what people lived through differently such as able to smoke and drink while being younger even though fake IDs of course to having a different outlook on one part of your body being deformed, which Vira had a deformed hand and so many people thought it was sick and she didn’t like how people stared at her hand. Plus, we see how neighbors are different during this time where you hardly see people on the streets early in the morning like we do now in town at least. So yes, this book did paint the idea of how things were different and how being accepted for who you are or what sex you want in a relationship is way different from what is now. Heck, even incest was seen in this book but don’t want to touch on that since that was a bit weird.

Rating: 3 Star Pawprints Out of 5! I am being nice with this one since it did bring us a new idea of Historical Fiction but it was a hard read for me. I felt a little sad while reading this book and wishing I hadn’t clicked on “Request” at the same time. Still, if you are into something like this you can get it through Amazon as an EBook. So, read with caution just in case.

Well, that is about it! Hoping the next book is not as emo as this one and not as weird too. Until next time!