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!

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda OR The Most Perfect Book I Didn't Even Know I Wanted

This book (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli) is what inspired me to start writing this blog, because I just want to enthuse about it and share it with as many people as possible.

To avoid a rambling summary of the book and give you a jist of the plot, here is part of the blurb from the book jacket:

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: If he doesn't play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone's business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he's been emailing with, will be jeopardized.

Over the past couple months, I've seen a lot of hype about this book on Twitter and Tumblr. I figured it couldn't possibly live up to it, but I decided to buy myself a copy anyways. I was wrong. It was so much better than I ever could have hoped.

I was hooked from the very first page when Simon's humor and clear, shining voice jumped out at me (and continued to do so in a pitch-perfect, consistent way throughout the entire book without ever feeling one-note or monotonous). When I got to the epistolary sections of the book, which are written through email, I was delighted. I love it when authors incorporate modern technology into their stories.

When Simon made a My Chemical Romance reference, I fell absolutely in love.

This book was fresh and lively with a killer momentum and perfect beats of humor - I involuntarily laughed out loud more than once. Even in the heavier scenes (and there are definitely heavy scenes, which are executed skillfully and beautifully), Simon's inherent personality and voice creates a certain sense of levity. Situations suck, but life isn't so bad.

Pop culture references that feel completely natural coming from Simon and the other characters were so fun to catch and didn't once feel gimmicky or trendy. Likewise, epistolary sections can feel a little overused or like a device for info dumping or speedy characterization, particularly in some YA books I've read recently. The emails between Simon and Blue were nothing of the sort. I believed every second of them: two boys trying to figure out what they think and feel through a measure of anonymity online (the emails are set up under aliases) and come to bond through that. I'm sure it's something that's happened, if not exactly in this set up, countless times. Often, it's easier to be yourself online than it is to be yourself in real life.

However, the "real life" interactions Simon has are just as well-written. All of the secondary characters felt absolutely developed to me, and the sub-stories in the novel were equally entertaining and compelling. Not once did I wish that I was with other characters or watching a different plot point unfold. I was completely invested in every scene of this novel, and I think that's because I've been or have known almost every character in this book in real life. It's incredible.

Also, the romance between Blue and Simon is so endearing. I was squirming in my seat more than once while reading this. The mystery that Albertalli creates around Blue was wonderful; I had so much fun thinking I knew exactly who Blue was, only to second guess myself and be sure that Blue is someone else just chapters later. (I guessed who Blue was relatively early on, but changed my mind multiple times since that point as the novel wore on. Part of the fun was that it really could have been anyone, and the reader can't be wholly sure any more than Simon is until Blue chooses to reveal himself).

As a writer, this book was so great to learn from. The pace was sharp from beginning to end but hit a dynamic range of emotional notes. Albertalli's skill at starting and ending scenes is breathtaking, and reading the way she develops characters and their relationships with one another made me feel like I was sixteen again in the best way possible.

Basically, this book is probably my favorite YA novel I've ever read. I hope everyone gets to experience the joy that is this novel. It was everything I never knew I wanted in a book, and I'm going to treasure it.

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