Author: Steve Brezenoff
Release Date: September 2010
Published By: Carolrhoda
Pages: 264
Goodreads Rating: 3.53 stars
Review: Noah, Lily, and Simon have been a trio forever. But as they enter high school, their relationships shift and their world starts to fall apart. Privately, each is dealing with a family crisis—divorce, abuse, and a parent's illness. Yet as they try to escape the pain and reach out for the connections they once counted on, they slip. Noah’s got it bad for Lily, but he knows too well Lily sees only Simon. Simon is indifferent, suddenly inscrutable to his friends. All stand alone in their heartache and grief.
THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF -1 quite simply gutted me. Each character outwardly seems unlikable from their initial personality characteristics, but as the author delves deeper into each of their individual points of view, the "true" characters begin to emerge. Each has their own heartbreaking story to tell, and although they were very different from one another, the author managed to avoid a common pitfall of novels with changing perspectives: having one character favored over others.
Of course, I would be remiss not to mention the writing. Every word written in these pages was phenomenal, to say the least. This book had the kind of quietly heartache-y writing that I love so much, so you can bet this is one huge factor for why I fell in love with this novel. The plot already had plenty of emotion infused in it, but this certainly brought it out even more to the point that I even cried while reading this.
There's not too much to say about THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF -1 other than that you should absolutely read it if you haven't already. This book pulls a massive emotional punch, but just the kind you want to receive. Everything is so heart-breaking and so authentic and so heart-breakingly authentic that you emerge from this book feeling almost changed. I can't recommend this enough.
 | | | | |
2 comments:
AAHHH this sounds RIGHT up our alley. And we've been craving a good (heartbreaking) contemporary lately. Thank you thank you thank you for bringing this to our attention and sharing your thoughts on it!
I remember finding this book so depressing-I prefer more lighthearted contemporaries but it is very well-written and could definitely hit somebody the right way if read at the right time.
Post a Comment