Review: How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

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I buddy read this with Dini @Dinipandareads. We flew through this book! It was my first by Center and I believe for Dini too. I had no idea what to expect but I know so many people hyped up this book for me. A little funny tidbit… the men’s character names were different in our copies!! I was so confused at first because Dini was talking about Charlie and I only knew a Chip! haha. Then the spelling for Ian was different too.

One of the things that I loved about this book was the writing. Center, does a wonderful job of making you think this is a real-life story. There were several times I thought, wow, this feels like an autobiography. The story sucked both of us in that we ended up finishing this book in about two days. There’s nothing that will point out the flaws in your life and those around you than tragedy. Sometimes you just keep going with the comfortable and what you know until life gets turned upside down.

I had a love/hate relationship with many characters. Center, did a great job of making characters unlikeable but toeing the line of not hurting the overall book enjoyment. For example, I immediately hated Margaret’s mom. She was terrible and we do get to know her more and see her change a bit but not enough to just overlook her behavior like Margaret did. There’s absolutely no way that I would be okay with some of her decisions, like a friendship later in the book. I’m not going to spoil anything but if you read this book you will know what I mean. My favorite characters in the book were Kit and Ian! They brought so much more to this book that helped you with the very hard and tough content. Don’t even get me started on Chip because I just didn’t like him from the second I met him.

There are times in this book that I thought Margaret just was too lax about things. I felt like there should have been more times she felt much more. I am must be much more dramatic and maybe it was her self-preservation of just putting it aside in her head. I did love her relationship with Ian. I completely understand how that played out though. You hear about it a lot. I mean, even in her inner dialogue, she was really focusing everything on Ian. It’s understandable when you’ve got nothing else. I think we should have spent a little more time with her after she got out of the hospital. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending. It was sweet but I feel like there was a missed opportunity. I don’t want to give any spoilers but just know that it was the wrong place.

Overall, this was a powerful read and I think it will be one that lingers. I’m so grateful to have a buddy read this with Dini. I need a light read now because I did not expect all the heavy emotions with this one. Center is just a great writer and I can’t wait to read more from her.