Kate Scelsa's FANS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE LIFE - The Magic I Wish I Had As A Teenager

 When I first saw a post about Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa, I felt like the book was written for me. I waited months to read it - and now that I finally did, I am not disappointed.

I'm not a fast reader, and lately I've been having trouble reading more than a few pages at a time. With Fans, I would sit down to read a few pages of this book and suddenly be 30, 40, 50 pages from where I started - a true testament to the success of the book's pacing. I even stayed after work to finish reading the last 40 pages, despite knowing I'd end up sitting in extra traffic and being late for an appointment.

To catch up anyone who isn't familiar with the plot, here's the summary from Amazon:

Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn, it’s as if he’s been expecting this blond, lanky boy with mischief glinting in his eye.

Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and impromptu road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

This is a truly character driven novel in the best possible way. When I first heard that the three different characters would be narrated in first (Jeremy), second (Sebby), and third (Mira) person POV, I was skeptical. It seemed like a lot, but it totally worked. 

Sebby's 2nd person POV was perfect, because it allowed the reader to really approach Seby's darkness in a way that wasn't too overwhelming, and also showcases Sebby's own trauma and distancing from himself and his experiences. Jeremy's 1st person POV feels the most intimate and vulnerable, and I think ultimately he is - while he had a terrible experience with bullying, it doesn't seem like he's as acquainted with inner darkness the way Sebby and Mira are, and it can be difficult to plunge into that world when you're not used to it. And Mira's 3rd person POV creates a similar distance to Sebby's, but one that's much more subdued, in a way that reflects her depression.

Through these characters, Scelsa constructs a world that showcases the dark, the breathless, and the mundane that's so prevalent in teenage life. And let me tell you - this novel does not back down at all, with anything (THAT PARTY SCENE). While at first some of the characters' behavior felt shocking, it didn't feel like it was for shock value at all, but rather a natural extension of the circumstances the characters were dealing with.

In that same vein, I thought Fans of the Impossible Life beautifully balanced how people who are not in a healthy place can be viewed very romantically and act out with romantic gestures - Sebby and Mira's "spells" to banish or conjure as a way of coping - while never romanticizing the mental illness or destructive behaviors themselves.

This book was a stunning exploration of the dark, twisty, incredible turns that friendships can take, especially when they're so much more than friendship but not quite anything else, either, in a way that felt very true to my own high school experiences.

When I was in a class over Labor Day weekend, the instructor asked us what our "stuff" is, the thing that we gravitate towards in the things we create and the art we engage with. My answer was "the bonds people create when they've reached rock bottom," and I feel like that is what this book is at it's core, at least for me.

It's a rare, special thing when you find a piece of your soul out there in the world, created by someone else, and this book is very, very special.

***

Other books I've written about:
Glory O'Brien's History of the Future

More Happy Than Not 

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

You can also find me on Twitter @HallockMarie. Come follow me there, we can talk about books!

More Happy Than Not - A Game Changer

After I finished reading Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertali, I was having a hard time getting into a new book. I tried a few different novels that I've had sitting around the house for a while, but nothing was sticking.

The same way I found Simon vs., I heard about Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not via young adult authors and agents on Twitter. I didn't know much about the book other than a lot of people loved it, and that it fell within the LGBT YA genre that I've been inhaling lately.

I finished reading the book this morning, and it was absolutely stunning. It did not go where I thought it was going to go in the best possible way, and it knocked out Age of Innocence (which has been a favorite book since 2010) to get into my Top Five Favorite Books of All Time ranking (along with The Poisonwood Bible, The Things They Carried, The Jellicoe Road, and A Thousand Splendid Suns).

I hope More Happy wins all the awards ever. It deserves them.

Before I get too far into my thoughts about this novel, here is the summary from Amazon to catch up anyone who isn't familiar with the general story:

The Leteo Institute's revolutionary memory-relief procedure seems too good to be true to Aaron Soto -- miracle cure-alls don't tend to pop up in the Bronx projects. But Aaron can't forget how he's grown up poor or how his friends aren't always there for him. Like after his father committed suicide in their one bedroom apartment. Aaron has the support of his patient girlfriend, if not necessarily his distant brother and overworked mother, but it's not enough.

Then Thomas shows up. He has a sweet movie-watching setup on his roof, and he doesn't mind Aaron's obsession with a popular fantasy series. There are nicknames, inside jokes. Most importantly, Thomas doesn't mind talking about Aaron's past. But Aaron's newfound happiness isn't welcome on his block. Since he's can't stay away from Thomas or suddenly stop being gay, Aaron must turn to Leteo to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he is.

Okay, now we're all caught up.

I'm having a very difficult time organizing my thoughts about this book, simply because I have so many. Just to have a jumping off point, I'll start with what I liked about the craft and structure of the novel and then I'll let it devolve into gushing (I try to be self aware):

• The writing is so tight and clean, while also letting Aaron's (the narrator) voice shine through in this absolutely authentic, sympathetic way. I never for one second didn't believe anything that Aaron told me, even when it was clear he was confused and hurting and angry. Even when it became clear that everything wasn't quite the way it seemed, I still believed everything because it was so clearly what Adam was experiencing in the moment. The exact moment I was sold on Aaron's voice 100% was page 19, when he's asking for advice about his first time sleeping with his girlfriend Genevieve. It was just so sweet and awkward and real, and I fell in love.
• I adore the way the book is broken up into sections that each have their own titles, as well as each chapter (of varying lengths) having its own title. It made it feel almost like a series of personal essays, which only added to the authenticity of the entire book.
• Speaking of authenticity, every character in this book felt fully developed, even the characters that didn't have as prominent of a role. I felt like I knew the neighborhood and the kids' dynamics both before the story starts and during the events of the story, and even though there were so many people who did so many flawed things, all of it was so human that I understood why it happened, even when I hated it. Especially towards the end, even the things I never saw coming felt inevitable once they were rolled out, in this really heavy, bittersweet, perfect way.
• On that note, though, nothing in this book felt plotted (which is not to say that the plot was anything but super tight and effective). Something that I've developed after my first year in an MFA program is the blessing/curse of picking out issues as I'm reading/watching something. There were a few times in the first 1/3-1/2 of the book where I had moments of "where did that character go? what's going on with that?" but then all of those questions were answered in this super organic, surprising, beautiful way by the end of the novel.
• Another thing I loved about this book is that it's not really about one thing. It's not really about being gay, even though it inextricably is. It's not just about memory and loss and living with those things, even though it inextricably is. Part of the reason it hit me so hard is because there were so many threads that were all equally important to the story and to who the characters are at their core, in a way that poignantly reflects life. 

I feel like I need to stop now, because I could go on and on about this book, which no one wants to read, and I also want to avoid disclosing spoilers as much as possible. Basically, this book is a game changer for me; I always am a proponent of adults reading YA novels, but I really feel like this one transcends so many genres and demographics in a way that not all books are able to accomplish. 

As for my own experience with this book, I'm sure I'll be reading it many more times so that I can learn as much from it as I possibly can. It's the kind of book that I feel like writers would benefit from studying. What I would give to be privy to Adam Silvera's process from first draft to last draft with this story...

If I can accomplish half as much in my novels as Silvera accomplished in his, I will consider myself lucky. More Happy Than Not is truly a gem, and I eagerly await Silvera's next novel.

You can also find me on Twitter @HallockMarie. Come follow me there, we can talk about books!