Scan barcode
graybulla's review
5.0
this book!!!! it's wild how much emotional depth is packed into so few pages. it's also wild just how deeply this book stuck with me since initially reading it.
in the months between reading this book and writing this review, IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES has stayed with me, floating around in my brain, popping up every now and then to be like "hey, remember me?" the scenes with estelle in particular stuck with me - i was so intrigued by their dynamic with the narrator, and the characters' brief flirtation was heart-warming and a bit heart-breaking at the same time, but more than anything, it felt real and complicated. and that's one of the things that i think this book does best: it always has authenticity and subtlety and complexity at its forefront.
this book is low-key and introspective and pulls no punches, and it's so good precisely because of those things. if this were written by someone else, i can see the actions taking place in this book being played up for melodrama, hammed up for an audience, made Bigger and Cinematic--but instead of treating these characters like they're in a movie, this book treats them like they're people, and i don't know about y'all, but that is one of the things i absolutely love when reading (and it's one of the things i hope to achieve in my own writing). plus, i've always loved a nick carrawy-esque narrator, and this book achieves that effortlessly.
if you're in the market for an introspective, emotionally-nuanced, beautifully written, coming-of-age YA novella, definitely pick up IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES. <3
in the months between reading this book and writing this review, IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES has stayed with me, floating around in my brain, popping up every now and then to be like "hey, remember me?" the scenes with estelle in particular stuck with me - i was so intrigued by their dynamic with the narrator, and the characters' brief flirtation was heart-warming and a bit heart-breaking at the same time, but more than anything, it felt real and complicated. and that's one of the things that i think this book does best: it always has authenticity and subtlety and complexity at its forefront.
this book is low-key and introspective and pulls no punches, and it's so good precisely because of those things. if this were written by someone else, i can see the actions taking place in this book being played up for melodrama, hammed up for an audience, made Bigger and Cinematic--but instead of treating these characters like they're in a movie, this book treats them like they're people, and i don't know about y'all, but that is one of the things i absolutely love when reading (and it's one of the things i hope to achieve in my own writing). plus, i've always loved a nick carrawy-esque narrator, and this book achieves that effortlessly.
if you're in the market for an introspective, emotionally-nuanced, beautifully written, coming-of-age YA novella, definitely pick up IT HELPS WITH THE BLUES. <3
morepeachyogurt's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Alcoholism
zillanovikov's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
There is a tendency for lonely, disconnected teenagers to fall too deeply into introspection. To observe their own life as they live it, both Nick Caraway and Jay Gatsby in their own story, hurdling towards their destruction, their eyes open. I know this because I was this kind of teenager. The narrator of It Helps with the Blues knows this too.
I'm not old enough to know if manic-pixie-dream-girls existed before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gave them a name. But I know that all too often, lonely, disconnected teenagers are looking for an external saviour. This thing we feel when we find the person we think will save us, will give us meaning, will make us finally not alone–it's not love. But it's not exactly not love either. Only it's too much to ask someone else to save you. Especially someone who needs saving just as much as we do. It's not just unfair. It's impossible. It ends in heartache. It ends in tragedy.
When I was in high school, I felt like my life was recursive, like I would be given the same choice over and over in different contexts until maybe–I hoped, if I made the right decision–I could escape the loop. Jules. Gabriel. Estelle. Joshua. The narrator is trapped in a Midwestern prison of suburbia and recriminations, doomed like Sisyphus to endlessly repeat and reexamine his mistakes.
It Helps with the Blues pours one out for the lonely kids. That was me. Maybe that was you, too
.
I'm not old enough to know if manic-pixie-dream-girls existed before Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind gave them a name. But I know that all too often, lonely, disconnected teenagers are looking for an external saviour. This thing we feel when we find the person we think will save us, will give us meaning, will make us finally not alone–it's not love. But it's not exactly not love either. Only it's too much to ask someone else to save you. Especially someone who needs saving just as much as we do. It's not just unfair. It's impossible. It ends in heartache. It ends in tragedy.
When I was in high school, I felt like my life was recursive, like I would be given the same choice over and over in different contexts until maybe–I hoped, if I made the right decision–I could escape the loop. Jules. Gabriel. Estelle. Joshua. The narrator is trapped in a Midwestern prison of suburbia and recriminations, doomed like Sisyphus to endlessly repeat and reexamine his mistakes.
It Helps with the Blues pours one out for the lonely kids. That was me. Maybe that was you, too
.
eurydice8153's review
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
stromberg's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This short novel ends with a question that, in one form or another, the story has been asking its narrator throughout. One perplexing imperative life imposes on each adolescent is to learn what they want—want in life, want from others, want themselves to be. High school, perhaps the shittiest period in many people’s lives, is where our maturation begins to require us to be responsible for our own vulnerability and for the harm we can do to vulnerable others—to learn to be non-shitty.
The novel’s unnamed narrator is staring down the end of high school and, beyond that, a drab, lukewarm future in his family’s prosperous business that will demand little of him. Like many teenagers, he is self-absorbed and unambitious—or rather, at a loss as to what ambitions he might conceivably hold. Though privileged, he is not haughty; he dwells in a state of quiet distance from others, a gulf he occasionally attempts to bridge with alcohol abuse. His only close friends, longtime crush Jules and occasional hook-up Gabriel, begin to orbit away from him after a classmate’s suicide shocks them all—but how this tragedy truly acts on them is to widen cracks already present.
The painful lesson awaiting the narrator is that to desire to relate to someone can be to burden them—to be infatuated can be to instrumentalise another—to long for another human, that most natural of impulses, can be dehumanising. Because a person is a person through other people, there is a danger that what he wants from Jules can end up forcibly defining her, even for Jules herself. He must come to realise what his knowledge or understanding does not extend to. One must not assume one always has the resources to figure other people out—and attempts to figure them out can actually be defensive struggles to avoid the much more emotionally perilous endeavour of relating to them.
Sexual and gender identity form significant elements of this tale, but I hesitate to call it a queer coming-of-age. Queerness in the end is a single facet of the narrator’s persona and experiences, part of the larger existential process of growing up which condemns him to learn about himself. His social isolation and personal dysphoria worsen and his drinking tips into unhealthiness, until it becomes urgent that, even at the cost of letting go of lost hopes of happiness, he find his people and define himself.
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual content, Bullying, and Alcoholism
malloryybee's review
4.0
It Helps with the Blues follows the story of an unnamed narrator growing up in the Midwest and how the suicide of a classmate affects him and his closest friends.
I loved how this book was written. It reads as though you’re sitting with an old friend who you haven’t seen in years, as they fill you in on what’s been going on in their life since. I liked how each character we were introduced too shared their own views on how they were dealing with the loss.
The only downfall for me was that we didn’t get to know the main character as much as the others. Only that he is a bisexual 18y/o who comes from a well off single parent household & has a drinking issue. Even though this doesn’t take away from the story, I just wished for there to be more.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I loved how this book was written. It reads as though you’re sitting with an old friend who you haven’t seen in years, as they fill you in on what’s been going on in their life since. I liked how each character we were introduced too shared their own views on how they were dealing with the loss.
The only downfall for me was that we didn’t get to know the main character as much as the others. Only that he is a bisexual 18y/o who comes from a well off single parent household & has a drinking issue. Even though this doesn’t take away from the story, I just wished for there to be more.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
alistairlowe's review
5.0
Actual rating: 4.5
Thanks to BookSirens and the author for providing me with an early copy. The book comes out in April 2022.
"It's the thing you do when you're out of other options; when you feel so irrelevant to the universe, you do something extravagantly foolish just to feel something."
That feeling when you randomly pick a book and go into it without any expectations and then end up loving it.
I would describe this kind of as a “slice of life” novel that follows a group of teenagers who are all to some degree affected by a suicide of a boy they knew. There are multiple povs, each giving us bits of information on what happened as well as how these teens are connected. Now the novel is pretty short and it's more of a character study that brings out certain topics of growing up, sexuality, depression and so on. The characters we get to know are quite mature and capable of self-reflecting on their past actions as they’re also trying to determine their place in the world. I think the story has this certain aura of sadness and the feeling of being lost that you experience when you’re about to enter adulthood, and even more when you get faced with serious issues for the first time.
Although it wasn’t directly specified, I have to say I was also pleasantly surprised that there is a whole chapter dedicated to a boy who describes his experience of being aromantic asexual. I have such a hard time finding books with ace representation but now one has found me.
Overall, a nice little read that definitely made me feel a bit nostalgic for those teenage days.
Review also posted on my blog.
Thanks to BookSirens and the author for providing me with an early copy. The book comes out in April 2022.
"It's the thing you do when you're out of other options; when you feel so irrelevant to the universe, you do something extravagantly foolish just to feel something."
That feeling when you randomly pick a book and go into it without any expectations and then end up loving it.
I would describe this kind of as a “slice of life” novel that follows a group of teenagers who are all to some degree affected by a suicide of a boy they knew. There are multiple povs, each giving us bits of information on what happened as well as how these teens are connected. Now the novel is pretty short and it's more of a character study that brings out certain topics of growing up, sexuality, depression and so on. The characters we get to know are quite mature and capable of self-reflecting on their past actions as they’re also trying to determine their place in the world. I think the story has this certain aura of sadness and the feeling of being lost that you experience when you’re about to enter adulthood, and even more when you get faced with serious issues for the first time.
Although it wasn’t directly specified, I have to say I was also pleasantly surprised that there is a whole chapter dedicated to a boy who describes his experience of being aromantic asexual. I have such a hard time finding books with ace representation but now one has found me.
Overall, a nice little read that definitely made me feel a bit nostalgic for those teenage days.
Review also posted on my blog.
nics's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
thisisgabe's review
5.0
THE CHARACTERS ARE BEAUTIFUL.
I really cannot express how much I enjoyed reading everyone’s story. I loved how it ended, it was really poetic and the build up towards it was perfect.
100% vibes, love this book <3
I read this book for free thanks to BookSirens, but my opinions are 100% honest.
I really cannot express how much I enjoyed reading everyone’s story. I loved how it ended, it was really poetic and the build up towards it was perfect.
100% vibes, love this book <3
I read this book for free thanks to BookSirens, but my opinions are 100% honest.
traumbooks's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Cebulski writes with a thoughtful, subtle touch. These are real, flawed people and the time and place feels entirely grounded. I enjoy this type of fiction which offers a snapshot into a very specific window.