DAVID LEVITHAN is a children's book editor in New York City.
Starred Review, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books,
October 2011
“Between us, we were supposed to know you,” says the narrator of
this poignant novel. The “you” he addresses there is a girl named
Ariel, whose lacerating absence is keenly felt; the “us” is
narrator Evan, who loved her beyond anything but couldn’t have her
to himself, and Jack, Ariel’s boyfriend, to whom Evan turns after
Ariel’s departure. Evan narrates in tense, jagged sentences that
bleed with raw emotion as he fights for control, often crossing out
the most revealing utterances as he tips into stream of
consciousness, and reveals piece by piece that the very troubled
Ariel attempted to kill herself. Already haunted by guilt and
grief, Evan is further tormented by the photographs someone has
been strategically leaving for him, photographs that shadow his
actions with Ariel and suggest there was someone in Ariel’s life
about whom he knew nothing. Levithan creates an immersive emotional
experience here, with Evan easily recognizable as the boy who was
already settling for being a friend when he ached to be more. The
mystery is poetically enigmatic, with the reproduced pictures
tantalizingly ambiguous even as they fit into the narrative; on the
way, however, there are other mysteries readers will be exploring,
piecing together the answer to questions such as “What happened to
Ariel?” and “Is this all in Evan’s mind?” The book manages to imbue
a not-uncommon teen crisis and dynamic with the sharp significance
of the rare, and the slight artifice of its approach will only
enhance the draw of what is undoubtedly the Emo Book of the Year.
DS
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
