| Title | : | Dying to Know You |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1419701657 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781419701658 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 288 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2012 |
| Awards | : | Carnegie Medal (2013) |
So Karl asks a local writer to help him construct his replies - and an unlikely, but extremely touching, friendship develops between the two men. They both come to learn a great deal about about life from a very different perspective, and when an act of violence shatters their calm, they find their respective appraisal of life shifting in profound ways.
This is Aidan Chambers' Dying to Know You.
Dying to Know You Reviews
-
I like that it’s different, that it’s a young adult story told in a very unexpected outside perspective, by a an eloquent, a bit ancient, semi-renowned author who initially has literally nothing to do with the characters in the story but later gets inevitably entangled with their lives. I enjoyed his perspective and how he comments on the behavior of teens nowadays and how he tries to connect their experiences today to his when he was their age. I particularly enjoyed the odd but adorable relationship he developed with Karl and how they tried so hard to keep to both themselves the love and friendship they have for each other.
Thank you to my buddy,
Neil, for sending me a physical copy of the book. -
Capolavoro.
-
Dying to Know You was kindly provided to me by Netgalley for Abrams.
Expected Publication Date: April 1st 2012
Interested in more of my reviews? Visit my
blog!
2.5 stars
The Storyline
"OK. Let me sum up and you can tell me if I've got it right. You've met a girl you admire and would like to keep her as your girlfriend. She fancies you and she wants to know about your private life, your intimate self, because she believes that real friends - let's say, lovers - tell each other about their secret selves. And she insists on you writing this. But you don't like talking about yourself, and writing would be torture because of your dyslexia. So you've come to me, who you know nothing about except that I write books Fiorella likes. And you want me to help you by writing for you what she wants you to write for her in proper English. Is that it?"
"That's about it, yes."
Thoughts
Alright, I admit it. It was really the cover that made me want to read this book. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a cute goldfish apparently.This is a very simple story that only somewhat managed to draw me in. I prefer that my contemporary novels have an original edge and a storyline that I can't see from a mile away and this one was pretty straight forward. It's also tagged as a YA novel but the writing seemed geared towards a more mature crowd.
It was a pleasant read that focused primarily on dialog only. I wanted more explanation about the characters; more detail that wasn't always conveyed in the dialog. I also didn't understand the immediate blooming relationship that occurred between Karl and the writer. I can understand his desire to help Karl and set up a couple of interview sessions so that he can find out more about him personally, but shortly after meeting and they're already taking a fishing trip together? Just seemed a tad unrealistic to me, but maybe I'm just not friendly enough. haha
All in all, I liked it, it was well written, but it fell short of missing the mark.
Favorite Line
"Sometimes the course of our lives depends on what we do or don't do in a few seconds, a heartbeat, when we either seize the opportunity, or just miss it. Miss the moment and you never get the chance again." -
Thought so.
-
Why did I read it?
So I'm supposed to read an award winning book for my Young Adult Lit class. Easy enough, right? Unless you're me. lol. I was shelving some books, and one said "Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award." Thought, cool, award winner, check! Only after getting half way through did I realize it was referring to the author, Aidan Chambers, not that particular book, Dying to Know You.
What happened?
Young man, Karl, walks into an aging author's office and asks for his help. Karl has a girlfriend, named Fiorella, who wants him to write about himself. Problem is, Karl has dyslexia, and writing about himself is pretty much hopeless. So, to please his girlfriend, who he really, really likes, Karl asks her favorite author to help him write to her.
That is at least how the book starts. Karl and the author soon find that they have a lot in common, look at the world in a similar way, and can help each other in ways they don't know quite yet.
What did I like or not like?
I really, really liked this book! It wasn't what I was expecting at all, and it was pleasantly awesome. While the book is written from the perspective of the author (the author in the story, not the perspective of Aidan Chambers, but it might be some of that as well), we never find out the author's name because the book is really about Karl. The author slowly learns more about himself and Karl throughout the book, and the discoveries are hopeful, encouraging, and very truthful.
In addition to a great storyline, the setting is also interesting. The story could take place anywhere, but it happens to take place in England. But, the author doesn't come out and say that. You just get hints and tips in some vocabulary they use and places they reference. It was surprising and cool.
This book is also chock full of little bits and pieces of very wise sounding things. The author in the story has lived a pretty long life, and it shows in the wisdom he has. I enjoyed a couple of the quotes so much, I'm probably going to share them on my Facebook profile.
P.S. There is some sporadic cussing throughout the novel, and some sexual content and discussions. -
This book is bad. Like I really didn't like it at all. I had many issues with this book but I will try and summarise it into the top three.
Firstly, this story is told from the point of view of an elderly author who has made friends with a young high school boy. From beginning to end this creeped me out, it just felt far too unrealistic. But on top of this, the old man thinks extremely highly of himself, often assuming that it must be him to fix any of the problems that arise. This was unimaginably irritating and the arrogance of the character threw me off the entire book.
Secondly, the way this book handles serious issues of suicide and depression is just inappropriate (again because of the actions of the old author man). If you are going to have a book that deals with these problems, they must be dealt with in a way that gives light to how serious they are - not in the trivial way this book explored them. This is the part of the book that probably annoyed me the most.
Thirdly, all of the characters just felt extremely flat. I never understood why anybody was acting the way they were and I never got an insight in to how most of the characters were feeling. Again I am going to blame the old author character. The point of view is from his character, but the story isn't about him, so you never truly understand what is happening or why. This could have been used effectively, but it wasn't.
Basically, I would not recommend this book to anyone. -
Ho già letto un po' di libri di questo autore, ma finora Muoio dalla voglia di conoscerti è il mio preferito.
Adoro che il protagonista sia un signore anziano e mi piace il rapporto tra lui e un ragazzo più giovane che viene a chiedergli aiuto.
In qualche modo si completano a vicenda, ma si aiutano anche a colmare le loro mancanze.
Una lettura veloce che ho amato. -
* edited for typos
Free eBook preview courtesy of Net Galley. Thank you!
I knew the name Aidan Chambers from the time I've spent over the last few months reading all the Mock Printz books for the workshop my library put on. It was an enjoyable few months of reading and feel like the time was well worth it. Aidan Chambers won the Printz award a few years ago, so I thought I'd give his newest book a go.
It's hard to know what you are getting into with an eBook. I can't judge a book by it's cover, for one thing, and I can't read ahead to see what happens during the last few pages. [I'm awful about that...I don't think I've ever read a book all the way through without reading the last 2 pages somewhere in the middle...]
Reading this as an eBook on my Kindle may have saved me with this book. I haven't figured out or am too lazy to figure out an easy way to peek at the end. In Dying to Know You I was in the dark the whole way.
Does someone die? Who's dying to know who? Who am I and where do I go from here?
You meet Karl, a working class bloke living in England who seeks the assistance from an author to write a letter to his girlfriend. Through their conversations, you learn this tough plumber/rugby player actually has a soft side, but just doesn't really know how to put it into words. He's a very private person, and just as he starts to open up a little, he's shut down again.
The author, living with secrets and shadows of his own, learns more about himself and his life during the months spent interacting with Karl.
It's an interesting book with thoughtful and insightful characters learning to be comfortable with who they are today, leaving behind the lives of yesterday. -
3.5 ish.
This was a light, quick read. It is told from the POV of a writer, who tells the story of a dyslexic boy who comes seeking the writer's help in order to impress his stuck-up girlfriend basically. The whole thing with the writer telling the story was an original idea, but i wouldn't think it was the best. Because it's written in first person, you'd think we'd get to know the writer better or know his story but we didn't know much about him, as his purpose was only to tell the story of the boy, and this made us feel detached from him as a narrater and from the boy, as a main character, as we never got to know exactly what the boy was thinking or feeling. A lot of times i felt like this book had no actual plot other than the boy and the writer developing a tight bond and a lovely friendship. I didn't like the love element in this book, we didn't know much about the boy and his girlfriend's relationship in the beginning, we only knew that the boy loved her. (SPOILER ALERT, which i think was not true at all, as they had both given up on each other in the end too easily.) Like i said, i felt detached from the characters, and so i didn't understand their behavior most of the time. (It gave me a All the Bright Places vibe, as i found the two books very similar in certain aspects.) The boy, Karl, was a really weird character who basically liked everything. The girl was idolized in the beginning and then belittled in the end. It was just really confusing. Though it was entertaining, it was kind of lame and cheesy at parts. -
Primo libro di Aidan Chambers che leggo e sicuramente non sarà nemmeno l'ultimo.
Ho deciso di leggerlo perchè una booktuber che seguo (ciao Erika) ne parla in ogni suo video, quindi mi sono detta : perchè no? Provare non mi costa nulla.
Ho amato ogni singola pagina. Lo stile di scrittura di Chambers è molto particolare. Va dritta al punto, non ci sono giri di parole. Linguaggio che anche se è semplice ha il potere di farti provare emozioni.
I personaggi li ho trovati davvero realistici e l'amicizia instaurata tra Karl e l'autore è una delle amicizie più genuine che abbia mai letto.
Un romanzo che parla del riscoprire se stessi, trovare il proprio obiettivo nella vita. Una lettura davvero consigliata. -
THREE WORDS: Quietly Beautiful & Breathtaking
MY REVIEW: Aidan Chambers’ Dying To Know You turned out to be quite an unexpected and wonderfully unusual Contemporary YA read.
Shy, endearing Karl’s girlfriend Fiorella has asked him to bare his soul and feelings in the form of letters to her, in which he answers a set of questions she has asked. Karl doesn’t feel as if he can do this in a way that will impress Fiorella, so he seeks the help of Fiorella’s favorite author. And in a very Cyrano de Bergarac manner, the author agrees to help Karl. The author won’t write the letters completely by himself though; he agrees only to spruce up Karl’s own answers and feelings and does so simply by getting to know him. These letters, and the friendship between these two men, have unexpected consequences that transform the lives of all involved.
Told from the perspective of the elderly author, Dying To Know You is quite unlike most YA novels I’ve read, but this certainly isn’t a bad thing. What I thought was going to be a simple, humorous story of love turned out to be so much more.
This book is made up of a lot of dialogue, the first chapter alone is almost ALL dialogue and I found this really refreshing and oddly fascinating. Chambers writes in a very simple, straight forward manner and I found that I didn’t mind the lack of drawn out or lyrical descriptions. The book is not face paced and it did take a few chapters for me to get comfortable with the slow rhythm, but overall, I enjoyed this languid pace.
The story itself is quite the emotional journey- for Karl, the narrator and the reader. Karl and the narrator's unusual friendship itself makes for an engrossing and touching story, but add in Karl’s relationship with Fiorella and his mother and the secrets that both the narrator and Karl are keeping, and Chambers has created a complexly layered story. Chambers deftly and poignantly explores topics such as first love, true love, grief, depression and despair, and he does so in a very unassuming and beautiful way.
As the narrator, the author in the book keeps very little from the reader and I was fascinated by this soul baring, and at times soul bruising, look into the mindset of a character type that we don’t often see in YA. The author makes for a truly compelling narrator. Karl is young and good looking and subtly charming like many male YA characters, but he is anything but a cliché character. Karl has held in his crushing grief and depression over his father’s death seven years ago and when these things finally become too much they throw Karl into a dark tailspin.
Aidan Chambers explores Karl’s heart-aching descent into depression in an overwhelmingly realistic and captivating way. There are scenes, especially in chapter fourteen, that took my breathe away with their startling, honest and all-consuming confessions from Karl. I am awed by Chambers’ ability to create concrete, tangible emotions.
All the major characters grow and change throughout the story, and they all discover things about themselves that they never realized or were too scared/stubborn to realize. I really like the way Chambers choose to end the novel.
MY FINAL THOUGHTS: Dying To Know You may not be what I'm used to when it comes to YA Contemps, but this is what makes it so captivating and worthwhile. This is a smart, thought-provoking and wonderfully written book that moved and entertained me.
For more reviews go to
Word Spelunking -
I was super duper excited to read this book. I thought the plot was really interesting and sweet, and I was craving something fluffy and adorable. I have to say that I'm left feeling a little disappointed.
There were absolutely some great parts and those little passages that I found very thought provoking and profound, but I just found the novel to be a little bit boring. The author is British, and sometimes I found his writing a little hard to understand, terms wise. The writing format was also a title confusing. There were big blocks of dialog where they were simply going back and forth with no indicators, and it was hard to decipher who was saying what.
I liked how the story began has a love story between Fiorella and Karl, and slowly morphed into this bonding of Karl and the author (I don't think his name was ever revealed). As I said, there were a few profound parts, but I didn't find this book good or bad, it was just okay. I didn't find myself wanting to finish it really, I just felt the need to finish out of a slight feeling of obligation.
Very unfortunate, because I wanted so badly for this to be an amazing and incredible book but for me, it fell short. -
This one's a tie between 3.5 and 4.
So, I heard about this from Laura (Boundless Bindings). You have a guy that wants to impress the girl he likes by getting her favorite writer to help him write answers to questions she wants him to answer. Easier said than done when Karl is dyslexic.
And from there, a slow friendship and bond grows between the writer and Karl.
This one, I had taken a longer break than I thought and finally saw it on the shelf and continued to read where I left off. The writing was good, especially the descriptions, the thoughts of both characters. Then there's the pacing. Don't get me wrong, I like a slow pace book as much as the next person. But with this, it did takes its time.
Then the story takes a turn halfway into the book. And I don't mind at all. Okay maybe a little. But still, it was a good read. Even if you weren't sure at first who was talking. And with most pages, its mostly dialogue driven. Not that that's a bad thing. Good read and I like the cover. -
Dying To Know You is unlike any book I've read before. It's told from an author's perspective (someone we never learn the name of and kind of have to learn things about as the story continues). I liked it, but the story was just too slow for me and, if it wasn't for a challenge, I might not have had any desire to finish it -- just didn't grab my attention.
-
Una bella scoperta. Nonostante sia un romanzo per ragazzi, lo scrittore affronta argomenti importanti, che portano a riflettere molto.
Ho adorato i personaggi, costruiti alla perfezione, di cui ho percepito ogni emozione, e la trama, mai scontata, dall'evoluzione sorprendente.
Adesso sono molto curiosa di leggere dell'altro di questo autore! -
I like the beginning of the novel better than its ending.. But I liked it anyhow.. Wish we could produce such novels for Iranian young adults too.. Such a pity..
-
this book was acc cute and I liked the friendship between the mc and the other mc. not much romance but rather exploring romance and oneself. i liked how this book was about a person who struggles to express feelings is trying to find himself. usually mcs know what they want or like so it was really nice to see a mc who acc struggles expressing feelings.
through half the book i was trying to figure out if the mc was an old man or old woman bc they wouldn’t specify and made it so mysterious like just let me know ???? also the mc was 75 years old but he didn’t act or seem like an old man except for the health issues
one thing I didn’t like was how love was played freely amongst the younger people but I liked how the people from the older generation are still in love with their loved ones even though they’re dead
but overall it was a cute book and somewhat relatable. like an old man who lived life and a young man just starting life, I liked their friendship. it was so cute :(( -
*1.5 star rating*
What the heck am I reading. That's exactly what I was going through by the time I finished this book. I'm still wondering, why? Why did I want to finish this book so badly, instead of putting it down, throwing it across the room, and stomp on it? One word- yearning.
I purchased this book because I was craving for something beautiful and wondrous, and that something was bookish romance. What's more cuter than two bookworms and writers falling in love with each other? Nothing, almost nothing. And that's what I wanted, and was looking for the whole entire two hours when reading this book, and I got none of that- except a good character development of Karl. That's just about it- oh and a pretty well written ending.
The plot started off fast- too fast for an ordinary contemporary-romance. I didn't get any information about the characters- their pasts, past-exes and all that. I felt like I was watching glue dripping out of a bottle, and that's far more entertaining than this, because you're looking forward to something.
A little later, everything turned out to be extremely boring and slow, back to the glue dripping idea, and that's the way the rest of the book stayed. I was in a very good mood, so I was being nice with this book and gave it too many chances, but I was never satisfied by the end. Glue, honey, maple syrup, I was watching a whole freakin' grocery store worth of substances dripping, and that's not really fun, if you're asking me.
The romance was another disgusting element. There was basically NO LOVE. O_o I didn't feel any sparks fly, zero. It was like Karl and Fiorella were acquaintances the whole entire time, I mean, when they "were together as a couple." No difference, broken up or "together." Where was that ultra-passionate gorgeous kiss that showed feelings? Where were the "I love you's?" Zero, nada.
That's exactly what I felt their relationship was like. Adventure Time gifs rule, by the way. :')
Now to the somewhat positive part of this book that this get that .5 greatness. Characters, specifically Karl's super jump in development. Karl was a bad character, I really got to admit that. He is not relatable in any way, he's flimsy, clumsy and awkward, haha. I mean, that's probably what the author was trying to get at, but I saw no sign of humour or greatness in him, at least until the end. He made a huge jump in how well he improved as a person and a person who is more capable of showing his feelings, by the end. And I'm proud of him for that.
Other than that, the characters were unlikeable. I hated Fiorella, so so so much. Why do all female characters have to be so ew-ish lately? Mia from Zac and Mia, and now this one? Ugh. I really wouldn't like to talk about this one, but let me give you a brief two-world recap. Go away. I don't like you. Okay, maybe that's five words, but it's the truth. If you're a strict character judger like myself, then you won't like this freak either, even if she's a writer and reader. She expects too much from a guy and expects him to change for her, for the way she would want him to be, and then basically leaves him and wants even more the next time. It's just disgusting to read about. A character like this better go and stay away from all books, now.
I overall think that this was a huge disappointment. Of course, I buy books that I believe I enjoy and possibly will adore, and then I'm left totally stumped. That's sad to feel. :( -
Originally reviewed on my blog,
Pen to Paper.
Dying to Know You is perhaps most unique in the way it has been written. When I first read the synopsis, I expected it to be from the point of view of the teenage boy, but it isn't. The entire story is written from the point of view of a 75-year-old man – a writer – and it soon becomes clear that the novel itself is supposed to be a kind of fictional non-fiction.
Whereas I think this is a good idea in theory, I'm not sure it worked well as it could have done. Yes, I felt I got to know the narrator – the old man writer – fairly well, but the point of the story, I felt, was to get to know all of the characters, particularly the young man he is helping, Karl, and Karl's girlfriend Fiorella (this is the correct spelling of her name from the book, despite the Goodreads synopsis above spelling it in a different way).
I felt as though I was merely being told facts about Karl and what was going on with Fiorella, rather than getting to discover these things about him for myself. Because of this I ended up feeling quite disconnected from the characters and didn't care for them in the way I feel I was supposed to.
This happened especially with Fiorella, who I didn't feel I knew very well at all, despite all that had been said about her, and when we did finally 'meet' her, first through emails and then through the eyes of the narrator (who is named so scarcely that I don't actually remember his name, despite having only finished the book yesterday), I found that I didn't like her at all.
And on the subject of her emails that she wrote to the narrator, she didn't feel quite real to me. She's supposed to be still in school, and although her age isn't mentioned, I'm assuming she's around 17. But she doesn't talk like a 17 year old ... "I'm really really agog to know" ... what 17 year old speaks like this? I wasn't convinced of her at all, I'm afraid to say.
My final real problem with this book occurs maybe a quarter of the way through, when Karl and the narrator are in a pub together having dinner. Let me ask ... what would you assume if you saw a 75-year-old man and a 17-year-old man having dinner together? Grandson and grandfather, yes? Not according to this story. I felt like the homophobic comments were thrown in just for the sake of creating conflict. It didn't make sense to me in the slightest that anyone would see the two together and assume they were in a relationship.
I can understand, from the rest of the story, why these men who taunted Karl with these comments needed to be introduced, but I thought this was not a convincing way to do it.
Having presented these criticisms of the book, I do have to point out that, on the whole, I did enjoy the book. It was a quick, light read that made an occasional interesting point (mostly about life and the creation of art), and I enjoyed that Oscar Wilde (a literary hero of mine) was brought up twice!
Although I felt disconnected from the characters, I stuck with them until the end, and I'm glad I did, if only so I could find out how their story ends. And I like the nice link from the end of the book back to the beginning.
This is a nice read if you're looking for something light and quick, but not if you're looking for a book that will move you or stick with you in any way. A way to pass a quiet afternoon, but perhaps not one that will stay with you for any amount of time.
2 stars seems like a bit of an unfair rating, so realistically I would probably give it a 2.5 stars out of 5. -
“’OK. Let me sum up and you can tell me if I’ve got it right. You’ve met a girl you admire and would like to keep her as your girlfriend. She fancies you and she wants to know about your private life, your intimate self, because she believes that real friends – let’s say, lovers – tell each other about their secret selves. And she insists on you writing this. But you don’t even like talking about yourself, and writing would be torture because of your dyslexia. So you’ve come to me, who you know nothing about except that I write books Fiorella likes. And you want me to help you by writing for you what she wants you to write for her in proper English. Is that it?’
‘That’s about it, yes.’
‘Good. Which leaves us with a couple of questions. One: Why should I help you? And two: If I help you, what is it you want me to write, exactly?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You don’t know what?’
‘The answer to both questions.’
I laughed.
‘You must be desperate.’
Karl laughed too. ‘I am!’"
The above excerpt pretty much sums up the first half or so of this book. An unnamed author - mildly famous with a small, devoted following – is approached by an eighteen year-old (Karl) who asks him if he would do a Cyrano de Bergerac for him, in his attempt to progress in his relationship with Fiorella. The author agrees to help him, and as they work together to answer Fiorella’s questions about Karl, the author and Karl get to know one another much better. Karl reveals himself to be deeply introspective, moody and self-critical, scarred by his father’s death when he was younger. The author, meanwhile, realizes that Karl reminds him much of himself when he was younger (his own wife died some years before), and he hopes that his age and life experience can assist Karl not just with Fiorella, but with figuring out his life in general. When things between Karl and Fiorella take a turn for the worse, and when Fiorella discovers the author’s involvement in the relationship, the friendship between Karl and the author is tested, and eventually strengthened, more than ever before.
This is a strong, well-written story of friendship across generations (the author is in his 70s), as well as personal healing and growth. I’ve enjoyed other works by Aidan Chambers, and this one exhibits the same quiet, carefully worded craft that readers have come to expect of his writing. That said, there several issues that bothered me with the novel. It’s written from the first-person POV of the author, about whom we know gradually more as the novel moves forward, but the perspective of an older narrator makes it more difficult to relate to the main teen character in the novel. And while the novel is paced well, it’s a very slow pace; there’s very little action, and readers need to handle frequent mentions of relatively mundane actions, not to mention the author’s prostate issues. And finally, I could not stand the Fiorella character, and couldn’t see what Karl could have possibly been attracted to in her as a person. If the entire plot of the novel hinges on Karl’s relationship with this fantastic girl, it fell a little short for me. Still, it’s very well-written, and the way Chambers develops the two main characters gradually, through small moments and few words, makes for a rewarding read. -
There are a couple of reasons why I like this book so much, although the storyline itself isn’t that interesting. I’ve got to be honest, sometimes Karl’s all of sudden shutdowns really annoy me, and Fiorella is this pretentious girl you do not like from the beginning. The incident is kind of strange, and Karl’s passion seems more of an obsession. The issues in the ending feel over the top.
But what I love about this book is that there are so many hidden treasures inside of it. First of all, it’s been written from the perspective of an old author, who has learnt a lot from experiences and provides these insights throughout the book, without sounding patronizing. At the same time he doesn’t pretend to know it all: he’s still learning in life and being honest about this. But he uses what he does know to advice others and with that the reader. One of the main themes in this book is depression. The author has suffered from depression himself and recognizes himself in Karl as he is going through the same. This leads to some interesting quotes on depression which really helped me when I read this book for the first time a few years ago, because I felt understood and not alone. It also treats the subject really kindly, it speaks of it as “being ill” and doesn’t condemn its nasty side-effects with respect to things like social interactions.
It’s also a book on the complexity and intensity of teenage love. I could slightly relate to Fiorella and hated her at the same time. She says she couldn’t live without writing and reading but it feels like she is just pretending. And she just can’t understand that other people wouldn’t like to write as much as she does, let alone write cleverly. I could kind of relate to her ‘need’ to be clever, we don’t get to know her motives but it’s one of those traits people generally like and sometimes you can go too far because you try to mask your deficiencies. But I couldn’t stand her for thinking she was in charge of everything She couldn’t see that cleverness isn’t just with words and that annoyed me. But luckily, she annoyed the author too so I could totally live with it. Actually, he even points out that she seemed to just be playing a role: even after everything he tries to tell that people have reasons for acting the way they do. Yet another life lesson.
And there’s so much more that I won’t talk about in details, like how you shouldn’t give up doing what you want to do, lessons in youth and age, in grief and hope.
It’s not a typical YA, but surely a valuable one if you want to read on depression, relationships, and the struggles of life. -
The story is a simple one. It’s of one asking the help of another. And it’s the other finding inspiration again. But it’s also both of them finding a connection where none was expected. Yet as simple as those three things sound, things did get more and more dense with progression. The dialogue played a part in that. There’s much too much talking and describing and little happening. But I suspect those four and five star reviews on this one loved that aspect of it, it just wasn’t for me. A big consequence of that same thing is that I never truly felt invested in any of them.
Sure, the old man showed experience, maturity and a confidence that the other lacked. Sure, Karl showed that tentative trying but unsure thing I enjoy in young MC’s. And yes, a lot of the things tackled are touchy. And yes, even the tackling of those things was done in a sensitive but accurate manner. Yet in the end I can say it was an enlightening read but a touch too heavy on the internal ruminations that I never went into the mode of ‘what happens next?’
I say it got more dense as things progressed and I didn’t mind at first. Because then I got to see what made both of them tick. But knowing what made them tick and then feeling for them are two wholly separate things. And if you’ve noticed I’m more of a feelings kind of reader.
Perhaps this was just not for me.
Thanks Net galley
2.5/5 -
This was an interesting contemporary novel. The narrator of the novel is an aging author and young Karl. Karl is dyslexic and therefore asks the narrator for help writing emails to his girlfriend, Fiorella who is the narrator's fan. As the novel progresses Karl and the narrator develop a strong bond, going through countless misunderstandings, ensues and results in a startling discovery, a near tragedy, and unexpected friendships. The novel is smart and touches on depression, identity and finding your voice in the chaotic world. My rating of 4 stars stems from the character of Fiorella and the sort of instant love that seems to be there near the end of the novel. Fiorella to me seemed to be a bit too shallow and though she was smart, she wanted to flaunt herself to anyone who would give her and time. The point of view was unique and smart and without Fiorella and an ending that I've seen before, it would've been a 5 star. The ending wasn't the strongest and I didn't connect much with the characters but my favorite by far was Karl as he has the most three-dimensionality to him.
“Life is not like a novel, but a novel can be like life. The best ones always are.” - Best Quote from the novel. -
A veces la voz de la sabiduría necesita callarse un poco.
No conecté con la historia porque el narrador se me hizo demasiado denso y reflexivo, ni hablar que es como un sueño hecho realidad leer cada dos párrafos sobre los problemas de próstata del señor y como se mea a cada rato, cosas obviamente re relevantes para la trama, imagínense *ojos en blanco*
La historia está más o menos linda, tiene buenos momentos pero en general re pesada. -
Cute and funny then sad and touching. Wasn't really expecting that ending but I guess I can go with it.
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Hmmmmmmmm
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Trigger & Content Warnings
Suicidal ideation -
questo libro mi ha devastato.
E' diventato non solo uno dei più bei libri letti nel 2018 ma anche il mio preferito in assoluto. -
3.5