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Aditi Nichani
The Careful Undressing of Love is a mystical book, filled with love and the gut wrenching pain it brings, with superstition and curses, with death and family all set on the shortest street in New York. Devonairre Street isn’t a normal street with standard brownstones and people traversing the sidewalks. It was once where people flocked to find love; where people flocked to find love that they thought the world owed to them. And because of it, any girl who lives on Devonairre Street today, will cause the death of the boy they love. Lorna, Delilah, Isla and Charlotte are the Devonairre Street Girls. Apart, they’re just your regular pretty girls but together, they’re something else. They’re mystical and magical; they have long hair and keys around their necks. People stare as they walk by, and to them, the Curse is all a game. Until the boy Delilah loves dies in a freak accident, and the lives of the girls on Devonairre Street change forever. I didn’t know what I was expecting going in, but The Careful Undressing of Love sounded SO SO UNIQUE that I knew I had to read it anyway. THINGS I LOVED: 1. THE TRADITIONS: Devonairre Street has so many of these quirky traditions (is it okay to call in that?) like keys around the neck, Shared Birthdays, lemons for grief and honey cake just to name a few. It really tied in the whole element that people REALLY BELIEVED that a Curse existed, and it made the book a lot more believable in its mysticism. 2. THE GRIEF: Whatever else I say about this book, I could feel the sadness and heartbreak wafting off the page. It was such a raw thing, so fragile and real and moving that I felt myself getting sucked and FEELING EVERYTHING in every time I read a few pages. Corey Ann’s writing was on point, making you feel it all. 3. THE CURSE – REAL OR NOT? Normally, I would never believe that a Curse that kills the person you love existed but HOLY WOW THIS BOOK MADE ME QUESTION IT ALL. Don’t get me wrong, I still wanted to shake Angelika and Delilah and the other older ladies of Devonairre Street, but IT MADE ME QUESTION EVERYTHING. 4. THE MEDIA FRENZY: I actually liked the media frenzy that occurred in the latter half of the book, when the article about the mysterious Devonairre Girls went viral. It gave a mystical and magical book an air of madness and utter loss of control and I REALLY REALLY LOVED IT0 . I don’t think I’ve properly captured the magic that is The Careful Undressing Of Love, but I could not tell you how much you need to experience the journey that is this book. A masterful, mystical tale about A Street, Four Girls and the love that encompasses all of us. Highly recommended!