not to read based on the information about the genderqueer amp intersex rep in this review:
sitelink livejournal. com
Also because I found out that This is not the genderqueer amp intersex rep anyone needs, especially genderqueer amp intersex youth, Reminds me of queer YA in thes amps, I can't explained exactly how I feel other than borrowing Giselle's quote "I still don't know what's happening, Someone played Mad Lib with my copy and I'm not impressed!"
This had some serious Mad Lib issues, I can't remember the last book I picked up and didn't actually finish reading, It was probably years and years ago but I just could not get through this book!! I'm one of those people who ALWAYS has to finish a book, no matter how bad I think it is, but this one was too painful.
Its really unfortunate because I love supporting Canadian authors :/
I'm not going to give it a rating since I only got about half way through it and I am quite bad at writing reviews for books that I don't like :/ I have no idea why I want to have this book.
I didn't even read the blurb, I guess the cover did it for me, . ashamed Leah Bobets Above has amazing cover art, and Id be lying if I said that that didnt influence my decision to add it to my wish list, But adding a book to my list doesnt necessarily mean Ill buy it, What tipped the scale was a positive mention by one of the book bloggers I trust for quality young adult and middle grade scifi and fantasy recommendations Charlottes Library, I know I say it over and over, but one of the best things about blogging is finding fellow readers with similar taste, and following their lead into the great unknown.
The cover might convince you that the protagonist of Above is a girl with wings, But while she Ariel is quite beautiful, the book is instead the story of a boy named Matthew, or Teller, His attempt to remake his own safe place after its invasion is the central adventure that and his need to protect Ariel, the damaged girl from the cover, and his duty to remember and tell the true stories of the inhabitants of his underground home.
But what is Above It is more than a book about a boy and a girl, It is the story of a ragtag community and its broken, hurting members, It is the story of danger, abuse, of healing, of trying to find a place to be safe, It is a sharp, biting, and exquisitely written story that deserves the adjective “haunting, ” It is all hard angles and uncomfortable truths and dark, secret things,
The prose, though the prose! Its exceptional, Feeling bled through words and heightened every sense, every reaction, Above was tense, mad, sorrowing, and altogether lovely, It will be one of my favorite books of, I am quite sure,
There were several unusual elements present in the story: the connection
of fantasy and mental illness, a discussion of psychiatry and its fringe elements of society, a biracial protagonist and how I wish I didnt have to write that that was unusual!, and a trained storyteller of a protagonist letting bits of the tale go free piecemeal.
The glory of the reading experience was in the discovery of truths that hurt and pulled and tore forming you, and the characters, into new people,
Recommended for: fans of China Mieville, Neil Gaiman, Kate Griffins A Madness of Angels, those who prefer a dark bite to their fiction, and anyone who has wondered if perhaps the shadows are stalking them and why this should be so.
Above is at once a love affair with a cityscape, an homage to the power of storytelling and a reckoning with the reality of human suffering, It's written in a lyrical staccato of descriptive pairs that struck a kind of musical harmony between the first person narrative of a teenage boy and his gift for luring the stories out of everything around him.
It is told in a 'dialect' but one borne of of the moral of this tale, that of enduring hope through despair, I think that was the most interesting part of this story for me, that hope came in the telling and the seeing, more than from the characters or circumstances, who were rendered simply 'as they were'.
The story's narrator, Matthew, put me in mind of The Chrysalids as he is a boy who has never know the world before whatever disaster/shift has occurred, so we learn the altered reality through his eyes, mining the things that are 'universal' about the world through his experiences.
This story had some profound sadness in it, I made it about/through and put it down to recover and eat a cupcake and came back to it a day later to have the pleasure of discovering it had an uplifting conclusion punctuated by a lot of doing the right, hard, true thing.
The weaving of the characters differences or extra abilities with their natures, experiences and emotions was very interesting as well, I saw some really neat parallels between animal harmony amp cultural tales and the characters themselves including musings on Native Canadian treatment amp isolation along with smaller, subtler ones a girl who stings like a bee, a boy who treads the world like a kindly but leaderhearted lion.
The 'villain' of this story will stay with me everafter and I'm particularly glad I got to hear the tale for each person in the book, their background and context highlighted for importance as Matthew collects them.
I have also had the pleasure of meeting the authorwhich is always a neat experience, Sometimes authors sound like their writing, sometimes not at all, often you can see them in their writing afterward, Meeting Leah had the effect of strengthening the convictions in this tale, its purposes and goals in showing vivid parallels between a fantasy story and the harsh realities it is drawn from.
sigh
I was really hoping to love this book since it is the first print ARC I received directly from a publisher, Unfortunately, it's just not for me, At pageI knew we weren't going to get along and I was right, Damn, sometimes I hate being right, The writing style is way to choppy and hard to keep up with, I felt like I was concentrating entirely too hard while reading, That is a problem. So, I put the book down thinking Above and I just needed our individual space, Whenever I walked past my book shelf I'd feel guilty because Above was steadily calling me saying, "Read me, Read me. " I had zero urge to pick it back up, :
So, I know I say it takes a lot for me to not finish a book and I do believe this is the first one offor me.
Considering I only made it to pagebefore I threw in the towel, I won't even give it a star rating,
Hopefully, someone else will love it, but for now Above and I must go our separate ways, That's it I give up, Pageand I still don't know what's happening, Someone played Mad Lib with my copy and I'm not impressed!
It's written like the protagonist never learned to speak properly and although it worked for me in Blood Red Road, It's really confusing in this.
Random words are capitalized and sometimes he means a person, other times a thing, But I never keep up on which is which, It's all showing, not telling/explaining and with the awkward writing style I'm just not following,
I won't review this on the blog since it's a DNF Okay, it was not the easiest book to read, However, I did find it hard to put down, It was about people who were different and they hid in the sewer, It was their home and it was called Safe,
Atticus had crab claws, Jack lightning fingers and electricity flowed through him Matthew Teller who weaves and carves their tales on the doors to Safe has scales on his back and big feet with claws Arielthe girl who Matthew loves is a bee Whisper can talk to ghosts and hear messages from the wind amp carry messages to the wind Corner has boygirl parts and has the "bloodtouch" that can go through walls and people's body.
All, except Matthew, have been in a psychiartic ward, Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, A young intern, known to the characters, as Doctor Marybeth, helped them escape, She continued to help them by donating medicine, food and other necessities, which would have cost her her medical license, if found out, She also provided her home as shelter to those who needed a place to stay or were sick, Then, there is Beatrice, who also provided Sanctuary for runaways and Ariel, She knew Ariel was different yet she did not turn her away and/or called the "Whitecoats" at Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, Atticus and Corner loved each other, As Corner tells the tale to Matthew, I thought there were spelling errors but, as I continued to read Corner's tale and the love she amp Atticus shared, I realized that it was Ms.
Bobet's description of Corner it has boygirl partsSieshe/he Hir him/her, The book was a hard read yet I understood it, Ms. Bobet wrote about good people who didnt' care about other people's appearances and their willingness to help people who are different by providing shelter, supplies, friendship and trust, Ms. Bobet also showed in this book that love has no boundaries and yet can hurt the people you love the mostAtticus exiling Corner because he had to show power Corner killing Atticus because she wanted Safe amp Sanctuary and he would not give it to her amp he chose Safe over her Ariel constantly running away and not trusting Matthew, who always searched for her and found her moreover, never gave up on her.
Even after she stung him countless times, he was always defending her talking gently to her and giving her the space he knew she needed, It was a hard read, but it was a good read, .
Grab Your Edition Above Brought To You By Leah Bobet Disseminated As Volume
Leah Bobet