by Kay | Jun 24, 2014 | Reviews |
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan
Published by Penguin Random House
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Source: Purchased myself
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Rating: One school. Twenty voices.
Endless possibilities.
There's the girl who is in love with Holden Caulfield. The boy who wants to be strong who falls for the girl who's convinced she needs to be weak. The girl who writes love songs for a girl she can't have. The two boys teetering on the brink of their first anniversary. And everyone in between.
As he did in the highly acclaimed Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan gives us a world of unforgettable voices that readers will want to visit again and again. It's the realm of possibility open to us all - where love, joy, and the stories we tell will linger.
Thoughts: One of the reasons I have many 3 and 4 star reviews on Dead Book Darling has nothing to do with all books being awesome. The opposite, in fact; about 40% of books I pick up I dislike intensely. Normally I don’t end up sticking around to see them end because I have better things to waste my time on.
Then a book like The Realm of Possibility comes along. A book that makes you want to pull out your hair and puck out your eyes in despair – but, hey, it’s short. You might as well finish the torture and then delete the memory from your brain.
In case I haven’t given the game away: I did not like this book.
David Levithan is trying too damn hard to be “one of the kids” while still preaching morality. Now, that would be fine if he could pull it off. His Boy Meets Boy does exactly the same thing, only the writing is good and the characters are well developed. The Realm of Possibility just isn’t well written.
The poetry is just… bad. The song “lyrics” are bad. The prose would have been… fine, if it hadn’t been for the obsession with formatting. All 800 of the characters might have been rather interesting, except they get about 3 pages a piece. It’s like Levithan followed an online how-to-write-in-verse and didn’t realise that his novel-writing skills would not translate. Give the man one of those gold stars saying “you tried, but please never try again”.
Just because you want to be progressive and write about LGBT characters does not automatically make your writing good. Just because you want to be inclusive and write about eating disorders does not make everything that comes out of pen gold. Nothing about this book felt genuine, While I applaud David Levithan for his good intentions, his execution just… sucked.
Bottom line? The Realm of Possibility has a vomit-inducing pretentiousness about it. Good intentions do not a good book make.
by Kay | Aug 28, 2010 | Reviews |
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
Published by HarperCollins on 2009-02-19
Pages: 240
Genres: Contemporary YA, Young Adult
Source: Purchased myself
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Rating: This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance.
When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.
This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.
Thoughts: This was a lovely book. Short, sweet and, well, lovely.
When I bought Boy Meets Boy I was somewhat skeptical. I wasn’t sure I would enjoy a book where the world was happy! with sunshine!and flowers! But, luckily, Levithan must have had the same thought. Because although Paul’s high school is a gay kid’s dream come true – the rest of the world in the book is certainly not like that. What Paul considers “normal” is a luxury to everyone else – including his new boyfriend Noah. I think this scene between Noah and Paul kinda sums it up:
“Have you always known?” he asks. I know immediately what he’s talking about.
“Pretty much so, yeah,” I answer. “You?”
He nods, […].
“Has it been easy for you?”
“Yes,” I tell him, because it’s the truth.
“It hasn’t always been easy for me,” he says, then says no more.
– Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, pg. 49
So while watching Paul come to the realisation that dude, did he ever luck out – there is also plenty of drama without all that pesky coming-out business. Guys can be idiots, even when they are dating other guys. And just because you don’t have to worry about getting bashed doesn’t mean you can’t royally screw up. Which Paul does. Very successfully.
I was also very impressed by Levithan’s writing style. This is a short novel, filled with a rich and diverse cast of characters – Levithan made each of them shine bright. Not to mention his writing style is elegant as hell and some of his ideas are out of another world. The book opens with the boys dancing on a night out – in a bookstore. Honestly, how brilliant is that?
Bottom line? This is a lovely, elegant tale. Short and sweet, I was loath to put it down.
