Getting Through So Much Closer By Susane Colasanti
The book follows two teenagers, Chloe and Matt, who both lost their mothers and navigate grief while falling in love. That is essentially the entire pitch. But reading it is a different experience than summarizing it. I picked it up on a recommendation a few years back, honestly more out of boredom than anything. By the time I finished, I had to actually process what I read. Colasanti writes grief in a way that does not treat it like a plot device. The characters breathe around their loss. They forget about it for a chapter, then something triggers them back into it. That is how it actually works in real life, and the book captures that rhythm better than most young adult novels attempt.
What Actually Makes So Much Closer By Susane Colasanti Work
Chloe volunteers at an animal shelter and writes a blog. Matt has been running away from home for a while and carries his grief silently until he cannot anymore. Their meeting is fairly standard YA structure, but the execution avoids most of the typical traps. Colasanti does not rush the romance into something that feels manufactured. The emotional progression stays grounded even when the plot gets heavy. The novel is written in dual first-person POV, alternating between the two leads. This is a structural choice that matters more than people usually credit. Reading Chloe's chapters gives you her defensive humor and her obsession with keeping things under control through work and routine. Matt's chapters reveal someone who has shut down emotionally as a survival mechanism. The contrast between how they process trauma is where the book earns its weight. I hit a specific wall around chapter eighteen where I actually had to put the book down. Not because it was bad, but because the scenes between Chloe and her father became too accurate. There is a moment where they just sit in the same room, neither speaking, and the tension of everything unsaid was almost unbearable to read. It reminded me of my own family dinners during hard periods. I set it aside for a couple days before going back. There is no workaround for that kind of emotional resonance except to just keep reading when you are ready.
Plot Structure and Pacing Details
The book runs approximately 300 pages and divides into roughly four parts. The pacing accelerates noticeably in the third section, which is where Colasanti introduces conflict through external circumstances rather than relationship drama. This is a smart move because it keeps the focus on grief instead of manufactured misunderstandings, which most YA romances stumble into at this exact point. There is a subplot involving a documentary project that Chloe is working on. It sounds like filler on paper but actually serves as a narrative mirror for her internal state. She documents other people's stories while avoiding her own. The technique is straightforward literary foreshadowing, but it lands because Colasanti does not overplay it. She introduces it early and lets it develop naturally without drawing attention to itself. The climax involves a confrontation between the two leads that could easily become melodramatic. Instead, Colasanti keeps the dialogue sparse and realistic. The characters do not deliver monologues about their feelings. They say what they can manage, and what they leave unsaid carries as much weight as the words spoken. This is the part of the book that distinguishes it from the general YA pool.
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Why Some Readers Skip Past This Book
Not everything works. The secondary characters, particularly the friends around Chloe, feel underdeveloped and serve primarily as plot conveniences. A few dialogue exchanges lean heavily into YA conventions that might push off readers who prefer more grounded teen voices. The resolution, while emotionally satisfying to me, wraps things up a bit too cleanly for how messy grief actually tends to be in practice. There is also a tendency in the second half to repeat emotional beats that were already established. If you have read Colasanti's previous work, You Don't Know This Girl feels like a rougher draft of some of the same themes without the tighter execution. The author clearly had these ideas before she refined them here. For readers looking for something similar in tone, there are better options depending on what you want. If the grief aspect is what drew you in, The Fault in Our Stars handles the subject with more literary ambition. If you want the romance without as heavy a burden, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda maintains emotional depth while staying lighter. Neither is a direct substitute, but they address overlapping interests.
Reading Experience and Practical Notes
The book is available in paperback, hardcover, and digital formats through most major retailers. The audiobook version is narrated by full cast and adds a layer to the dual POV structure that some find helpful and others find distracting. I would recommend starting with the print version unless you prefer audiobooks as your primary format. The prose benefits from being able to reread passages quietly. If you decide to read it, go in expecting a slow burn. This is not a book with plot twists or sudden reversals. The tension comes entirely from emotional honesty and the question of whether these two people can let each other in without drowning. The answer, appropriately, is neither simple nor entirely certain by the end. I would not classify this as essential reading for anyone, but it occupies a solid middle ground in the contemporary YA space. It respects its audience enough to not explain every feeling, and it trusts the characters to carry their own weight without authorial interference. That restraint is rarer than the usual YA marketing would suggest.
Final Thoughts on So Much Closer By Susane Colasanti
The book works when you approach it as a character study rather than a romance plot. Most reviews focus on the relationship development, which is fine, but it misses what the author is actually doing. She is writing about how people survive loss while simultaneously trying to build something new. The romance is a vehicle, not the destination. It is not flawless. The supporting cast could use more development and some sections lag. But the core emotional arc holds together throughout, and the writing is clean enough that those flaws never become dealbreakers. I returned it to my shelf after finishing and have pulled it off once since, mostly when I needed something honest rather than entertaining. That is a reasonable measure of how well a book like this functions.
