The Now or Never Moment: Omnibus by Katie Kaleski Goodreads
By the time she realizes she loves him, he’s already gone.
Shelby and Tanner have been inseparable ever since freshman year when she intervened to save him from a bully’s beating. Fast forward four intense years--Shelby is leaving for college. Without Tanner. Three days before she’s set to move, he hands her a thick envelope with explicit instructions:
In no way shape or form is she to open the envelope until she is perfectly settled in at school. She is not to even think of it until then.
No one has seen Tanner since that moment.
She opens the envelope to find a letter of epic proportions inside that spans their years in high school together. When she reads it out loud to almost her entire dorm, Shelby relives the good and all of the bad, and together they learn details that Tanner held back, the things he never told her. How much he really loves her.
Sometimes, all it takes is walking in someone else’s shoes to realize what you’ve known all along. Sometimes, that realization comes too late.
*this book deals with suicidal ideation, depression, and bullying*
With everything going on in my personal life (that’s a whole other post ya’ll) I’m not sure if this was the book that I should have read or exactly what I needed. First let me say this book deals with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. I suffer from the first two daily. And I have personally dealt with the last one. During the last couple weeks I have been quiet on my blog due to the first one (depression). This is a hard time of the year for me. I’ll address that in a post sometime this week. With all that being said I think that Katie Kaleski handled and wrote about all three with such empathy, compassion, and a loving heart.
The Now or Never Moment: Omnibus is a must read for anyone who has ever felt alone in this world. It is the story of Tanner Tally and his best friend Shelby. It is Tanner’s story, in his words, of how Shelby was his anchor to this world. She was his safe place. His love. Tanner starts his story the day he first meets Shelby, the first day of freshman year.
Kaleski has crafted a story that draws you in and holds you in it’s grasp with every emotion there is. You can fill the sadness, the love, the rage, the hurt, the remorse, and the grief. You ride the highs and lows of depression with Tanner and Shelby. The Now or Never Moment is beautifully written.
While I really want to shout and scream and discuss in the littlest detail about this book. I feel this is a book you should experience personally. Maybe it’s because mental illness is such a personal thing. Maybe it’s because I think if you’ve never dealt with a mental illness it will give you a better insight. I’m really not sure. LOL. But I can tell you this if you walk away from this book not having been moved I will be shocked to my core. I honestly didn’t think it would hit me quite the way it did.
And with that let me just add one thing. To anyone who has or ever will deal with those issues. #YouMatter You matter to someone out there. To someone you are there everything and while it hurts and sucks to fight back against your own mind You are not alone because people do truly care.
Until my next post My Blissful Bishes, much love from me to you.