A beautiful journey, absolutely worth every second.
Everybody loves a great found-family novel, and it is so much better when the story isn’t fiction! When Love Sticks Around is a stirring collection of essays about growing up in the Midwest in the 80s and 90s. Danielle experienced a childhood not uncommon for her time, filled with cartoon character pajamas, candy colored velcro wallets, and pop-music on cassette. Her mom and stepfather play into early memories including humorous caravan family trips and traumatizing childhood mishaps. As Danielle careens toward adulthood, she handles all sorts of incidents with as much poise as she can muster. Mean girls that love to bully, growing up without a lot of money, loss of loved ones, and other disappointments decorate her coming of age. Through all of this, sage advice received when she is least expecting it shapes her person. “Keep making good choices.” Or, most poignant, a commentary about the limited time we have with those we love, “These are the most important moments.”
Part memoir and part hypercolored trip down memory lane, Danielle Dayney shares snippets of her past in the form of richly described memories, causing a deep sense of nostalgia to envelop readers like a heavy crocheted blanket. Dayney possesses the rare gift to tell a story while capturing the precise flavor and feeling of the moment. The narrating voice ages in time with the author, so readers are treated to snapshots in time from that first hand perspective. It is so authentic as she talks about her soon-to-be-born sibling when “she was still in Mom’s belly,” truly a sentiment from the heart of a child. Another moment that feels incredibly genuine and truly embarrassing involves unwrapping a training bra on Christmas morning while extended family looks on. In these heartfelt moments, Dayney spares no personal expense.
Danielle Dayney may not slay a dragon or cure a disease, but what she does is pass through this life as a grateful participant, taking the time to truly experience friendship, family, and love. Her story is one that will warm your heart, soothe your soul, and call to mind all the everyday things that eventually add up to the whole of who we are. Like watching the colors slowly fill in on a developing photograph in a dark room, When Love Sticks Around is a beautiful journey, absolutely worth every second.
