TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Original 1982

Author: Lori Carson
Title: The Original 1982
Publisher: William Morrow
Publish Date: May 28, 2013
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Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours
Blurb: It’s 1982, and Lisa is twenty-four years old, a waitress, an aspiring singer-songwriter, and the girlfriend to a famous musician. That year, she makes a decision, almost without thinking about it.

But what would have happened if she had chosen differently? Thirty years later, haunted by regret, Lisa revisits her past to reimagine it.

Alternating between two very different possibilities, The Original 1982 is a novel about how the choices we make affect the people we become—and about how the people we are affect the choices we make.

Review: The Original 1982 is a novel of "What If." In this case, what if Lisa hadn't have had an abortion in 1982 and instead kept the baby that was fathered by her musician boyfriend.

This is a super quick read and one you won't be able to put down especially if you like the 80s.

I loved the way Lisa reinvented those years and the character of her daughter, Willow. I loved how she was determined to be a mother, even though her life is shitty at first.

Lisa isn't a character that it is easy to like, because she's really co-dependent on Gabriel for awhile. It is hard to imagine any woman wanting to keep this guy around for love, because he really treated her badly. She kept falling back into bed with him, even when he was cheating on her.

However in her alternate 1982 she grows up a bit faster, even while harboring a crush on her former lover. She becomes a pretty responsible mother.

There are so many memorable characters in this book. I loved her friend Alan and the neighbor Maria. I also loved all the little references to 80s music in the book.

The story offers up the two realities, but it doesn't really try say which one is better. I think both Lisa's had some regrets stemming from the decision that she made in 1982.

In the end, the story is bittersweet and you know that in Lisa's reality she's really matured and you wish her the happiness she didn't find so  far.

Rating: 5 flowers