Ben, Dean, Millie, Zara. Me – Alix. Five friends, five years… it feels like a lifetime.
Once they were five, now they are four. Alix has drifted apart from her friends ever since Millie’s death, she was the glue that held them together, but she made a promise to a dying girl. They would open the time capsule they’d made five years earlier.
Unboxed is a great example of how you don’t need many pages to really care about a group of characters. The story is set over a day, when the former friends reunite and fetch the time capsule from the school’s roof. It’s about friendships and memories, and letting go of secrets.
Alix never told anyone she was gay whilst Zara has her rich, older boyfriend in tow. Friendly Ben moved to an exciting new life in London and Dean’s the bad boy of the group… but maybe things haven’t been easy for any of them.
This edition is also dyslexia friendly, partly the length of the book is designed to be appealing to non-readers but also the font is apparently easier to focus on and the paper is thick and a very pale yellow, to prevent the text from the other side showing through and distracting the eye.
Good things come in small packages and I loved this little novella. Non Pratt is so good at friendship stories.
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Book Source: Purchased
