ELEANOR & GREY by BRITTAINY C CHERRY

‘His stare was sadness. Sadness didn’t come with words; it ran across a person’s body. It swam in their eyes. It swept across the wrinkles in one’s forehead. It pushed down their shoulders and sat uncomfortably at the corners of their lips. No human ever had to speak of their sadness for it to be seen. We just had to truly notice one another to see it. All we truly had to do was slow down and look.’

Eleanor and Grey was an emotional and beautiful story of friendship, first love, grief, heartbreak and survival. Brittainy C Cherry has a wonderful way with words. At times her writing is flawlessly poetic in nature. This story has a wonderful message about friendships and how some people come into our lives when we need them the most, when our lives or emotions have spun out of control and we need that special person to ground us, to see us. To find the pieces of our shattered hearts and slowly bind them together in their rightful place again. Whilst a heart can be somewhat whole once more it will always bear the scars and memories of breaking.

“That’s what loneliness is – living in a world where no one really sees you.”

Eleanor is our kind of girl. A book worm, a Harry Potter fanatic and an introvert. She loves her parents, her best friend and getting lost amongst the words. Suffering one of the greatest losses a child can experience ultimately breaks the heart in a way that can never fully heal. Grief has a way of changing a person and their path; the loss affects us all differently, yet having a person in our life who understands and can draw us away from the emotional abyss can be life-changing.

“Grey?”
“Yes?”
“Would it be alright if I kept you forever?”

Eleanor finds a boy who embodies everything she needs at a point in her life when the future is uncertain, he gives her the beauty of friendship and healing. A best friend, a soul mate, a boy who does everything to distract, make her smile and make her visible.

“You are worthy of having more than someone’s mediocre love. The best kind of love is the kind that fills one up completely, leaving reassurance, not doubts. You deserve that. You deserve to be someone’s whole.”

Greyson almost lives two lives. One as the popular boy at school, one as the child with absent or fighting parents. In Eleanor he finds a friend, he finds out everything he can about her to make a connection. His way of ‘seeing’ Eleanor was wonderful and had us feeling all the emotions. Greyson and Eleanor find in each other what the other needs at this specific moment in their lives, until life interrupts and fifteen years separates them.

“He read Harry Potter. All five books, because I told him we had nothing in common, and he wanted to make sure we did.”
“He read your favourite series?”
“Yup.”
“Eleanor…Marry this boy.”

In the first part of Eleanor and Grey we experience the before, the teenage years, the story of Eleanor’s loss, the pivotal role Greyson played in her healing. In the second part, the teenagers are now adults whose losses and subsequent heartbreak have altered their lives. Once again fate plays a hand in making that pivotal shift so that as another one breaks the other can heal.

“Thank you, Eleanor.”
“For what?”
“Being my reason to smile today.”

We fell in love with Ellie and Grey as well as all the other characters. Brittainy C Cherry writes characters with such depth and has a way of telling stories which never depreciates the value of humanity nor measures one soul against the other. This story embodies those life-altering experiences and the marks they leave upon our hearts and souls. A sweet heart-breaking tale that takes you from tears to smiles and smiles to tears.

‘His soul was born to be loved by mine.’