By Your Side
As everyone knows from the book blurb, Autumn gets trapped in the library for the weekend. She thinks she is by herself, and just as her anxiety is about to kick in Dax shows himself. The two spend the weekend playing games to pass the time, watching a little tv, conserving their snacks and talking. In a room filled with books, Autumn has zero interest in reading any of them. Dax tries but Autumn thwarts his efforts. Dax is the mysterious bad boy at school. All Autumn knows are rumors and so she uses this opportunity to play twenty questions as a way to pass the time. Dax has no interest in getting to know Autumn any better, but she works her way into his bubble a little bit at a time. Dax takes care of Autumn while they are in the library, helping her stay calm, providing her with food and warmth at the sacrifice of his own discomfort. This continues even when they are freed, as she assigns him the role of her "distraction". Autumn spends a lot of time trying to make people happy, at the expense of her own comfortability, and Dax's quiet support helps her to begin advocating for herself.
There were some things that I felt were off. The book was way too short. I felt the book-length sacrificed some back story and character development so that it could stay within a certain page count. Way more could have been done with the books in the library. Trivia, a scavenger hunt for Dewey decimals, hunt for quotes...that could have been used to add some additional depth to Dax. And Autumn's anxiety seemed a little too excessive and frequent, and yet her friends had no idea she had it. It didn't seem likely that she was that good of at faking it. Kasie West could be the next Sarah Dessen, but she needs to add length and story development into the book. Still, I loved Dax and I really liked the book as a whole. Quick read, took about 4 hours.
