Reading Response #4: Lovely, Dark and Deep

     I'm nearing the end of Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNamara. Wren, the narrator and main character, lives with her dad. She moved there after she was in a drunk driving accident where her boyfriend Patrick was killed. She has met and is dating a new boy named Cal Owen. She is trying to settle into a new "normal". She is struggling with this because the accident left her with a great deal of emotional trauma and issues. 

     After a not-so-helpful visit to a psychiatrist, Wren goes for a run in the middle of a cold winter night. She is found laying on some rocks not far from her house. She is starting to get hypothermia and has to be hospitalized. During this situation, the title of the book begins to make sense. Wren says, 

"The woods are dark and deep, and I run through them until I can't feel anything anymore...I tear through deeper and deeper parts of the woods. Like if I'm fast enough, the forest might open up and let me in for real. I run until I'm burning. My lungs screaming in my chest, my muscles on fire. My heart's a machine" (Page 243).

      In this passage, it becomes apparent that Wren finds comfort in the woods. They are an escape for her, and they help her to forget anything else while she is running through them. Being in the woods allows Wren to find a state of calm when she is having an emotional breakdown. This photo is what I imagine the woods look like for Wren. They are beautiful and act as a safe place for her to go.


     Even though Wren's midnight run makes her seem like a lunatic, it opens her eyes. Her family's reaction to seeing her on the fringe of death makes her realize that she is loved. She sees that they really are on her side, wanting everything to be okay for her. She begins to take steps on the way to feeling happy and normal again.