With or Without You

4,5 Stars // I love those Sliding Doors plots, the musings about "what if...". Normally it is about winning back someone, having a second chance. Shari Low instead ponders the possibility of breaking up a marriage that works but not sparks anymore. Very interesting idea! Liv and Nate really tried to make their marriage work. They talked about being dissatisfied, and then gave it a whole year to rekindle their love with regular date nights, romantic holidays, arranging little surprises, getting out of the friends zone back to being lovers again...they went the whole nine yards with it. Did it help? Not for Liv. She does not want a marriage that she is only content with - she wants excitement. So with the start of the new Millennium they call it quits in one version; and stay together in the second one. Shari Low gave her story a lot of thought and develops two absolute credible versions. She explains Liv's (1st person narrator) feelings very well. And her writing style really suited me. The book is split into 2 parts: the first tells the story of how Liv's and all her friends' lives unfold when she leaves Nate. Afterwards we get to read what would happen if the two stay together after the 31st of December 1999. I think it would have been a bit more suspenseful if you get to read the two stories more parallel instead of one after the other. And I'm pretty sure Shari Low thought about this, too. But in the end it would have been just way too complicated to keep track in which version you are in now and what exactly happened to whom in which universe. And it is perfectly fine the way it is now. As I said, we not only follow Liv and Nate, but also all their closest friends. And I totally feel like being a part of their clique after accompanying them for a stretch of 16+ years. The group feels a bit like the clique from 'Beverly Hills, 90210', because they all stay close friends with one another even if a couple breaks up. In TV shows I always think that the reason for that is simply not wanting to introduce a whole new set of characters into the story and casting new people. Here in a book I find it a but too unrealistic. After finishing the book you inevitably ask yourself if there is such a thing as destiny and that "what's meant to be will be", no matter what. Or is everything just a question of being at the right place at the right time; and if you miss one bus you just take another which brings you to a whole different destination? I for myself would say the latter. Would I have made other (significant) choices in my life, I would live in a whole different country right now.