Recent Reads: the first of 2019.
This post was definitely meant to be published in January... oops. Well, happy
2019, my book loving pals! This is set to be an exciting year in the
book world, and the magical UKYA community. I started the year
with a bookish bang; three YA novels! Wanna know how I felt about them? Read on…
Someday,
by David Levithan.
For
as long as A can remember, life has meant waking up in a different
person's body every day, forced to live as that person until the day
ended. And now A has found out there are others.
A has already been wrestling with powerful feelings of love and loneliness. Now comes an understanding of the extremes that love and loneliness can lead to—and what it's like to discover that you are not alone in the world.
‘Someday’ takes readers further into the lives of A, Rhiannon, Nathan, and the being X. And the key questions of the series are answered: What is a soul? And what makes us human?
I
think it says a lot that it took me almost a month to get through
this book - when I blazed through the first two novels in this series
in a matter of days. It was good, the writing was beautiful in places
as per, but it was also clunky and inconclusive and tied up a bit too
neatly at the end.
I
loved the first two novels in this series. This story has
always had me gripped, and the concept itself is
beautiful, original and kinda genius. I
gobbled up ‘Every Day’ and ‘Another Day’ within a matter of,
well, days.
However,
this one took me a while to get through. I think because the
bulk of it was focused on a very complicated relationship
between two beings and a simply not-quite-right
relationship between two regular humans. Also, there was a lot of
talk and not much action. Also, the alternating narratives of A, X,
Rhiannon and Nathan were a little clunky. Also, there was
another narrative running through it of a chat room conversation that
seemed a little forced to begin with, and then petered off for the
entire middle of the novel, then picked back up at the last possible
second and was a bit of an anti-climax.
I'm gonna keep this brief. It's safe to say I wasn’t thrilled with this instalment in the series.
Sorry, David!
Side
note: I also recently watched ‘Every Day’, the movie, on Netflix.
It was super cute… but borderline irritating in that cuteness!? It
just came off really fluffy and shiny. I’d have liked to see more
of the grit and quirk. Also, I’m convinced Rhiannon was played
by Amy Adams after she jumped through a wormhole of some kind.
*
All the Lonely People,
by David Owen.
Kat has been a target for bullies, seeking to destroy her online life. Once they succeed in wiping her off the internet, her physical body begins to fade and while everybody else forgets that she exists, the guy responsible for it is suddenly the only one left who remembers her. Overcome by remorse for what he has done, Wesley resolves to stop her disappearing completely. It might just be the only way to save himself.
‘All the Lonely People’ is about online culture – the good and the bad – and explores the experience of loneliness in a connected world, and the power of kindness and empathy over hatred.
Words used in reviews and quotes I’ve seen so far for this (brilliant) book include: timely, emotional, clever… and here’s my contribution: unique. It was technically science fiction, but it felt painfully contemporary as I read. The idea that we humans could fade away into nothingness and be completely forgotten about if our individual online worlds and personalities were deleted? A little too real, in this day and age.
Issues tackled in this fictional tale include: loneliness (obvs), toxic masculinity, belonging, feminism, the many horrors of the online world, and the dependency some of us humans (particularly young ones) can have on social media.
Also, this was an excellently queer novel. As Alice Oseman pointed out in her Goodreads review, the central romance was f/f; believe it or not, the male and female narrators who alternate throughout do not end up together. That was super refreshing, tbh.
This is David's best book thus far. Grab and devour immediately.
*
Ro
lives with her mum, Bonnie (‘never mum or mummy or mother. Just
Bonnie’) and doesn’t let anyone ever visit their house. They
can’t find out what’s inside. It’s a
lonely existence, but at least she’s not in danger that way.
But
then Tanvi Shah, the girl who had cancer in Year 7, bursts back into
her life and Ro finds her usual walls of defence
aren’t working, and suddenly she’s scared what could
happen to her and Bonnie…
I
think Lisa W is so clever when it comes to creating characters. It
almost sneaks up on me, the amount I come to care for them as the
story goes on – and then there’s that initial dislike I feel for
their bullies, toxic friends and, in this case, mentally unstable
mothers, that soon transforms into sympathy and sadness and deep
understanding!? I don’t think anybody in her books (see my previous
loves: ‘The Art of Being Normal’ and ‘All About Mia’, as well
as her key part in ‘Floored’) is one dimensional, and my first
impressions are almost always proven wrong in some way.
I
adored Ro Snow, and the initially irritating Tanvi Shah, and
eventually even felt something for the awfully selfish Bonnie. Whoa.
Lovely Lisa will be featured VERY soon in my new How, What, Where & When series, talking more about 'Paper Avalanche', so stay tuned for that!
Lovely Lisa will be featured VERY soon in my new How, What, Where & When series, talking more about 'Paper Avalanche', so stay tuned for that!
(spoiler alert)
Also, I loved that not everything in this
story was magically 100% solved by the end of the book. I sometimes
tire of the novel structures that feel the need to neatly wrap
everything up in a cute bundle by the end, then sprinkle some inane
optimistic glitter on top of it, just for good measure. It’s cute,
and yeah, maybe what some readers need, but for me it's too unrelatable. ‘Paper Avalanche’
ended with gentle reconciliation, tentative transitions, and a lot of
hope.
Oh
also, there was a sweet romance that was a brilliant little sub
plot, and not the whole story!!!?! And a first kiss
that didn’t take up several pages with description!? That’s
so rare in YA! Hey other authors, just so you know I am here for
that!
Little
end note, and unsubtle nudge for Netflix’s creative humans: I can see
this book becoming a gorgeous, moving film. I'd have to have a hand in casting though, because I'd need Raffey Cassidy to play Ro, maybe Joanna
Scanlan to be Bonnie, and definitely Noah Centineo to
play... well, Noah.
That's it for now, folks! Stay tuned for the next instalment of Recent Reads, and in the mean time, why not check out the first in my new bookish interview series, How, What, Where and When?
That's it for now, folks! Stay tuned for the next instalment of Recent Reads, and in the mean time, why not check out the first in my new bookish interview series, How, What, Where and When?
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