I’m a sucker for a story set in a hospital, centred around terminally ill kids just trying to live their lives. Lancali’s I Fell In Love With Hope is just that and so much more. With beautiful poetic prose, characters full of heart and soul and light, and the shadow hanging over your shoulder as you read, knowing this isn’t going to be a happy book, it will leave you speechless.

Lancali is a master of poetic prose, I truly don’t know anyone else who can pull off what she has done. It has that teenage literary vibe akin to a slam poet or a young adult really honing in on their craft. It’s fresh and relatable and so deeply personal that it hurts at times. The love for these characters with bring tears to your eyes and you will not want to continue reading solely because you don’t want their stories to end.

For this novel to really only have one setting, and that’s evidently a hospital, there is so much that Lancali has done to make it feel less dreary and boring and plain as a standard hospital. The personality of these characters and the way they breathe life into the spaces they inhabit really brings the setting into rich focus and makes it feel less like the cold, unforgiving walls on an ICU unit or a terminal ward.

Now, let me say this right now. Don’t get mad at me if you do pick this up because, like with any book, in order to finish it you need to read it from front to back. That means being introduced to these characters, see them interact with each other, and say goodbye to them. You won’t want to. You’ll stop reading halfway through so that you don’t find out what happens. You’ll think damn it Anna, why did you convince me to read this book? Like with all great stories, the ending teaches us a lot of things about the world and about ourselves and this is one of those stories where, even though it will be a tearful read, it’s completely worth it.

Lancali deserves to be up there with other poetic prose authors such as Madeline Miller, Erin Morgenstern and V.E. Schwab as the quality of her book proves she has what it takes to be one of the best. I am thoroughly looking forward to reading more of her work.