So, this is a YA/teen novel, written by Natalie Standiford. One of its bigger selling points is that it's LGBT fiction, or at least is very implied as such. Triggers for: death & thoughts of dying, disappearance, cheating, drugs & alcohol, abelism, and bullying. Its main characters are a boy and a girl who are in love, but the relationship they're in is asexual. Their relationship is seen in a variety of ways: described as familial, best friends, boyfriend/girlfriend are used once or twice, but neither of them feel as though it fits well. They never overtly are described as asexual. I actually got this book from my school's GSA group. In their office, they have a mini library and I saw this one in the fiction section. The title grabbed my attention, so I picked it up. The back made it sound interesting, if not a little cliche, but this book really broke my expectations. There will be mild spoilers in this post, and complete spoilers below a cut. You've been warned.
It starts out with our protagonist, Beatrice, describing her lifestyle and how she's going to have to move to a new school just for the beginning of the school year. She's not upset, as a self-described robot, though her mother coined the term. To be honest, the book isn't initially that exciting. She goes to the new school, her parents are acting weird, she sits between the cool girl and the weird boy - who's described as a ghost, and teased for it. The story is kind of like Mean Girls at this point, she gets taken in by the popular girl and her friends, the hot guy might be crushing on her. The ghost boy, Jonas, leaves her a note for a radio station to listen to (something she's into), and she starts becoming friends with him. The rest of the kids start to shun her when she hangs out with him, and they're self described freaks. One thing I liked about this was that they weren't praised for being ~different~ from all the other kids in their school. She still likes the other girls, and spends some time with them, occasionally partying with them. It's simply that she finds Jonas more interesting. There's a character who has a crush on her, its obvious to the reader but not to the characters, but he's very not pushy and sweet about it.
This would be boring, by my standards personally. The parent drama, the crushes at school, being friends with the weird guy. But Natalie spices it up by throwing in some weirder stuff. Jonas is a twin. His brother had been mentally handicapped, and their mother had devoted herself to caring for him. They died in a car crash when Jonas was 8. That's when he became weird and stopped spending time with other people. However, part way through the novel, Jonas finds out his father had lied to him, that his brother Matthew was still alive and was in an institution somewhere. Beatrice and him devote themselves to trying to find him, but they find it nearly impossible, and his father refuses to give him any information, because he believes they are better off without him being a burden on the family.
With all of this, there is a subplot of the radio show community - the show is based solely on callers and they have meet ups and parties of sorts throughout the novel. There is also the weirdness between Beatrice's parents, her mother is especially acting strange and has to begin therapy to try and regain control of her life. The other kids in school continue asking about Jonas and Beatrice's relationship status, but they find difficulty describing it, and Beatrice is pursued by two other boys, making Jonas jealous. School happens, they both do artwork of different types - Jonas draws mostly, while Beatrice does photography. They think about colleges and plans for next year. I'm going to talk about the rest of the book underneath the cut, but first my final thoughts.
I really liked this book. Would recommend to most people. If they are asexual, good representation, if not, it's still excellent that this book is portraying two teens having a platonic relationship without feeling a need to conform to societal roles. They're frequently questioned about the nature of their relationship, and at a few points Beatrice questions it herself. She mentions it to Jonas, blurting it out when he's acting jealous: "what's it matter to you, it's not like you're my boyfriend." They discuss it the next day, and decide that what they have isn't well described by boyfriend/girlfriend, but they're definitely more than friends. After that, it doesn't seem to bother her. A few times she says she loves him, but as I mentioned previously, it is described in different ways.
The plot at first seemed cliche and boring, I probably would have stuck with it, but wouldn't have recommended it to you. But the twist with Jonas' brother twists and twists and keeps on twisting. The book ends way differently than I ever could have imagined, and I really like it for the most part.. Part of me still wants a little more of a happy ending, but I think the way it ended did a good job of tying it up. There were lots of interesting characters, and good world building, it didn't feel incomplete or lacking, but it also wasn't too much to balance. It just felt like somewhat busy, that there were things happening pretty frequently, and that they were social people. Seriously, read this book. If you've read it, continue past the cut, if not - seriously, you should wait and read it. Readers feel free to start a discussion in the comments, or find me someplace else and talk to me!
It starts out with our protagonist, Beatrice, describing her lifestyle and how she's going to have to move to a new school just for the beginning of the school year. She's not upset, as a self-described robot, though her mother coined the term. To be honest, the book isn't initially that exciting. She goes to the new school, her parents are acting weird, she sits between the cool girl and the weird boy - who's described as a ghost, and teased for it. The story is kind of like Mean Girls at this point, she gets taken in by the popular girl and her friends, the hot guy might be crushing on her. The ghost boy, Jonas, leaves her a note for a radio station to listen to (something she's into), and she starts becoming friends with him. The rest of the kids start to shun her when she hangs out with him, and they're self described freaks. One thing I liked about this was that they weren't praised for being ~different~ from all the other kids in their school. She still likes the other girls, and spends some time with them, occasionally partying with them. It's simply that she finds Jonas more interesting. There's a character who has a crush on her, its obvious to the reader but not to the characters, but he's very not pushy and sweet about it.
This would be boring, by my standards personally. The parent drama, the crushes at school, being friends with the weird guy. But Natalie spices it up by throwing in some weirder stuff. Jonas is a twin. His brother had been mentally handicapped, and their mother had devoted herself to caring for him. They died in a car crash when Jonas was 8. That's when he became weird and stopped spending time with other people. However, part way through the novel, Jonas finds out his father had lied to him, that his brother Matthew was still alive and was in an institution somewhere. Beatrice and him devote themselves to trying to find him, but they find it nearly impossible, and his father refuses to give him any information, because he believes they are better off without him being a burden on the family.
With all of this, there is a subplot of the radio show community - the show is based solely on callers and they have meet ups and parties of sorts throughout the novel. There is also the weirdness between Beatrice's parents, her mother is especially acting strange and has to begin therapy to try and regain control of her life. The other kids in school continue asking about Jonas and Beatrice's relationship status, but they find difficulty describing it, and Beatrice is pursued by two other boys, making Jonas jealous. School happens, they both do artwork of different types - Jonas draws mostly, while Beatrice does photography. They think about colleges and plans for next year. I'm going to talk about the rest of the book underneath the cut, but first my final thoughts.
I really liked this book. Would recommend to most people. If they are asexual, good representation, if not, it's still excellent that this book is portraying two teens having a platonic relationship without feeling a need to conform to societal roles. They're frequently questioned about the nature of their relationship, and at a few points Beatrice questions it herself. She mentions it to Jonas, blurting it out when he's acting jealous: "what's it matter to you, it's not like you're my boyfriend." They discuss it the next day, and decide that what they have isn't well described by boyfriend/girlfriend, but they're definitely more than friends. After that, it doesn't seem to bother her. A few times she says she loves him, but as I mentioned previously, it is described in different ways.
The plot at first seemed cliche and boring, I probably would have stuck with it, but wouldn't have recommended it to you. But the twist with Jonas' brother twists and twists and keeps on twisting. The book ends way differently than I ever could have imagined, and I really like it for the most part.. Part of me still wants a little more of a happy ending, but I think the way it ended did a good job of tying it up. There were lots of interesting characters, and good world building, it didn't feel incomplete or lacking, but it also wasn't too much to balance. It just felt like somewhat busy, that there were things happening pretty frequently, and that they were social people. Seriously, read this book. If you've read it, continue past the cut, if not - seriously, you should wait and read it. Readers feel free to start a discussion in the comments, or find me someplace else and talk to me!
