The Distance Between Us

 

1/15/2025

 

Dear reader, 

 

            Have you ever waited to watch a love story and it never happened?  The Distance Between us is a perfect example of a book with no point and no meaning. 

 

             Kassie West wrote The Distance Between us, a novel that demonstrates 2 people falling in love but separating from their differences. West has four kids who are adults and a husband who loves to draw. She lives in Fresno, California but travels very often to places in the states. She wrote many books including: “P.S. I like you”, “The Fill-in Boyfriend”, “Better than Revenge”, and “Lucky in Love”, 

 all have 3-4 stars and mixed reviews. On average it takes West about 3 months to write the book and another 6 months to clean it up and get it published. Overall, West has a very peaceful life and publishes books that most of the public love but some dislike. 

 

            The Distance Between us is considered a novel and a young adult literature book. According to Britannica a novel is a “genre of fiction” as it takes place in a regular world but the characters do not exist. West tried to write a love story but she failed and now it just sounds like she didn't put any effort in. In her book West adds characters like Caymen, a young adult who lives in a doll shop with her mom who is struggling to pay the bills. Caymen never has enough food and she barely gets paid working at the doll shop because her dad left when she was little. Then there’s Xander, whose parents own one of the fanciest hotels in the county. They met through Xanders aunt while she was at the doll shop shopping for Christmas gifts. Xander went to pick up the dolls but instead he got a caymen, his new girlfriend. They went on many dates and each week they had a surprise, some fancy, like a photo shoot and some not as fancy, like grave digging. Each week they had a blast but then they separated due to their differences. After a while Caymen’s mom started coming home late and not acting the same, Caymen  had a suspicion that she was having an affair but instead she was surprised to find out that she needed to have surgery in her stomach due to a sickness. On top of that, the mysterious guy was a tax collector who hadn’t gotten the money yet.

 

            West wrote a short scene of Caymen at a rich gala meeting her grandparents for the first time, while she was there she realized her ancestors had money that she never knew about. Her boyfriend comforted her the whole time except one part, “ He thinks my mom has done this on purpose. To show me how the other half lives. And now I’m realizing in a way she has. This is why she knows way more than she should about the ins and outs of wealthy living.” (West, 272). All her life she has lived on top of a doll store working 8 hours a day to make money, when her grandparents had money all along. It shows that money shouldn’t matter but when it's right in front of you, you can’t seem to get over it. 

 

            All books have a theme, in The Distance Between us the theme is discovering what matters. Caymen grew up poor so she knew money was tight but there wasn’t much she could do about it. As she got older she started working at the doll store to help her mom pay the bills, but when she fell in love with a super rich guy she realized that love matters more than money. Her mother was against that though because she believed the poor shouldn’t date the rich because of their different lifestyles. As Caymen got older she discovered that love matters more than anything in the world and money shouldn’t stop you from love. 

 

            West wrote this book to show people that differences don’t matter when it comes to love and  Even though she tried there were definitely ways that could make it better and not sound like a 7 year old. To make it even worse she made it dorky and weird by adding characters with names like die, crusty toads, and tic. There are ways she can improve but if she makes a second book I will not be reading it unless it's 10x better than this one. West wrote The Distance Between us to be an inspiring and sweet novel but nothing about it was  inspiring. 

 

            Sincerely,

                 Naqiya Rodriguez.