Book Review- Love is the Higher Law

I finished reading Love is the Higher Law today by David Levithan.

From Goodreads:

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption as his characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever.
 
After reading this book, I find myself conflicted about what I thought on it.
 
On one hand, I really didn't care about any of the characters.  If the book wasn't on such an important topic, I don't think I would have enjoyed it at all.  I am such a character person--they are what make books great for me.  But these teenagers just didn't do it for me.  I wanted to feel shock and horror and terror and sadness and caring but I didn't really get that from any of them.
 
On the other hard, I feel like this is such a very important book.  It's the only book I've read about 9/11.  And there need to be more out there.  I mean, I know there are nonfiction books out there, but I think there needs to be more fiction out there.  Young adult today would have been so young when the tragedy happens that I think there need to be more for them to understand and just FEEL about it.
 
So I'm conflicted.  I wish I liked the main characters more than I did.
 
I gave this book a rating of 3/5.
 
This book fulfills items in the following challenges:
2012 Reading Challenge 150+: 9
2012 Young Adult Reading Challenge: 7
2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: 1
 
*FTC Disclosure: I was given this book for free from a contest win from IbookDB.