Book Review #12: A Moment of Gray by B.E. Ruffino

Hello Dear Reader!

I know. It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a book review. I’ve been in a reading slump for a while now, and I just got out of it. Before I start today’s review, I do want to say that this book does include some mature themes and very sensitive topics such as mental health and sexual assault. Just wanted to give you a heads up in case you’re not too comfortable with topics such as those because I probably will be talking about those just a tad within this book review.

Let’s get started!

A Moment of Gray is a young adult novel with a bit of wholesome romance sprinkled in that truly moves the plot forward, and I absolutely love it! This book is also a more serious type of novel that represents the life and mentality of a person who is struggling with mental health issues and sexual assault, which makes this young adult read very mature and not so suitable for a younger reader.

But before I get into that, here’s the synopsis (from Amazon):

WARNING: INCLUDES STRONG LANGUAGE, TEENAGE PARTIES AND GRAPHIC SCENESThe most recognizable symptom of depression is sadness, but does that mean depression and sadness are the same thing? When 17 year old Adeline Gray is forced to attend group counseling to receive the unwanted help her mother believes she needs, Adeline does her best to convince her mom that she is not depressed. She’s a normal teenager with normal teenage problems. So what if her long term boyfriend dumped her a few months back, or that her best friend’s death anniversary is creeping around the corner? She may be sad, but she’s not depressed. The worst part of the whole ordeal, besides it being forced on her, is that Adeline knows her mom’s true intentions. For years, Adeline’s mother has been ashamed of her because she doesn’t live up to the high expectations already accomplished by her beloved siblings. But one unintentional result of attending group sessions is the unlikely friend Adeline makes along the way. The seemingly dysfunctional group consists of former and current drug abusers, a boy with severe social anxiety, a girl who is medically diagnosed as depressed, and most interestingly, a boy who killed his mother. The more Adeline tries to avoid this boy with a terrifying back story, the more the boy appears in her life. She is told by family members to keep an open mind, for you never truly know someone’s story. Overtime, Adeline learns what really happened to the boy’s mother, and they decide to start over. Through this newly-found friendship, the unlikely duo takes on the world together, helping each other out. And it’s a good thing too, because once Adeline’s life starts looking less gray, a shocking realization makes everything come crashing down. Written by a teen, for a teen, A Moment of Gray dives deep into the dangerous territory that no author can seem to accurately represent: the teenage mind. This page-turning YA novel tackles the stigma of mental health in teens, as well as the importance of family, keeping an open mind, and most importantly understanding that not being okay is okay.

End synopsis, and I really have to give these back-cover summaries a more thorough read before I start reading the book. When the author says graphic scenes, she means graphic scenes.

Review time!

Main character and narrator Adeline Gray is a 17-year-old girl with insecurities, weaknesses, and problems I’m sure just about every teenager can relate to. Throughout the story, I could tell she had some sort of inferiority complex to her siblings, who are all more academically inclined than she is. Adeline is also very self-conscious about her body image, which just about everyone can relate to. She’s prone to over-thinking and thinking negatively and pessimistically, and she worries pretty heavily about how other people see her, all things that I personally find very relatable, especially when I was still in high school.

Regardless, Adeline shows plenty of strengths, such as pulling out sick burns out of thin air when confronting her mortal high school enemy, and number one girl I’d never befriend if she existed in real life, Trisha. She’s also very caring, compassionate, and fairly quick to admit to her mistakes and make up for them. There are also times when she can be headstrong and sticks up for herself, which is always satisfying to see.

There are a lot of characters in A Moment of Gray, but this large cast is handled so well that pretty much everybody got some sort of character development. These characters also cover a wide range of walks of life, from drug abusers and people with social anxiety to those who are living their normal adult or high school lives with nothing more than the typical issues. You really get to see the diversity of people that Adeline meets in this book, and it probably matches all the different kinds of people that someone in real life have met as well. These characters are also all very distinct from one another, which I absolutely love, and they don’t all get along, which is always a plus. Also, the boy mentioned in the back-cover summary? A definite keeper!

While there were a lot of things I loved in A Moment of Gray, there was the occasional little typo that pulled me out of the zone. There were also times where I personally felt like it was droning a bit, and concerning a big twist in the story, while I didn’t predict it was going to happen at all, I did figure out who the main “bad guy” was pretty early on. That being said, the brutality of this twist still hit pretty hard even though I knew who the “bad guy” was. Simply put, what he did was a lot worse than what I had in mind. These little things also didn’t take much away from the story, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, A Moment of Gray rating:

8/10 and would definitely recommend because it is really accurate when it comes to representing the teenaged mind and what a teenager can go through when in high school. Mental health is a very relevant topic, all the drama in the book is definitely something that exists, and the situation that Adeline was in is one hundred percent something someone in real life can go through. So, if you’re into realistic reads, this one is for you. Just be mindful of the mature topics this story does cover.

That is all for this book review! I hope you enjoyed reading it, and I really do hope you give A Moment of Gray a try. Also, check out the indie author @amomentofgray on her Instagram because she’s really sweet and amazing, and she really is passionate about writing.

Thanks for reading!