Scan barcode
sherylcat's review against another edition
3.0
The narrator was really good, but yet I didn't get totally drawn in. Still a good story 3.5 stars
aliciakindlereads's review
1.0
⭐️ means I DNF
I had to stop at 11%. This was very hard to follow. I felt that I was getting multiple characters and began to become confused as to gender of character and who is who. I tried to continue to read it because this book was sent to me through NetGalley but nothing was keeping my interest and I was becoming more and more confused.
This will be something I would have to give another chance later on.
I had to stop at 11%. This was very hard to follow. I felt that I was getting multiple characters and began to become confused as to gender of character and who is who. I tried to continue to read it because this book was sent to me through NetGalley but nothing was keeping my interest and I was becoming more and more confused.
This will be something I would have to give another chance later on.
kafkaesque666's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
fallbetweenthepages's review against another edition
4.0
Thank you Netgalley for the chance to review the advance copy of Everywhere You Don't Belong. I’m excited to share with you all this thought provoking novel centering on a young man faced with the harsh reality of what it means to be a black in America while desperately searching for a place where he belongs.
At first I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my kind of read. I normal drift to the YA genre, but once I started reading, the more I wanted to know about Claude and his life. Nothing about this novel is predictable however there are several rough truths etched in that make you stop and think, “Why is it so difficult to move forward?”. For Claude, he wants nothing more than a normal life, to be free to live without the pressures of what lay beyond; riots, thinking about the parents who abandoned him, and the constant violence he is faced with everyday.
While I did want more descriptions of Claude’s surroundings, the author’s writing style presents a unique yet general tone of the characters who shift in and out of his life throughout the years: the girl he loved, the friends he's lost, and his parential guardians who do the best they can to mend the hole in his broken heart. I throughly enjoyed the novel, while heartbreaking and bluntly honest, Bump turns a coming of age story into a powerful message of the constant struggles the black community still faces today.
At first I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my kind of read. I normal drift to the YA genre, but once I started reading, the more I wanted to know about Claude and his life. Nothing about this novel is predictable however there are several rough truths etched in that make you stop and think, “Why is it so difficult to move forward?”. For Claude, he wants nothing more than a normal life, to be free to live without the pressures of what lay beyond; riots, thinking about the parents who abandoned him, and the constant violence he is faced with everyday.
While I did want more descriptions of Claude’s surroundings, the author’s writing style presents a unique yet general tone of the characters who shift in and out of his life throughout the years: the girl he loved, the friends he's lost, and his parential guardians who do the best they can to mend the hole in his broken heart. I throughly enjoyed the novel, while heartbreaking and bluntly honest, Bump turns a coming of age story into a powerful message of the constant struggles the black community still faces today.
bookrecsondeck's review against another edition
2.0
I initially brought this because synopsis was interesting. But I stopped reading at page 100 I couldn’t connect with the way the story was told, very confusing at some parts. I found myself anticipating for book to be finished then that was my cue for me to stop reading. I think it’s more appropriate for YA audience
hannahgiven's review against another edition
5.0
i am not legally allowed to give any book about chicago less than 5 stars
saschadarlington's review against another edition
5.0
Debut author Gabriel Bump’s novel Everywhere You Don’t Belong is a coming-of-age novel about Claude McKay Love who lives in Chicago’s South Side. The reader follows Claude through his first memories involving his parents, who leave him with his Grandmother, to his best adolescent friends and their lives until they leave, to a riot that changes him forever, to love and his own departure.
My very first impression of Everywhere You Don’t Belong came from Bump’s writing. The voice he weaves throughout is mesmerizing, hypnotic, drawing the reader, as least this reader, in. The way he has some characters recount memories or philosophy is like poetry with its building repetition and lists, a rhythmic ebb and flow of words. After reading so many recent novels in which well-executed, beautiful prose is an after-thought, if even considered, Everywhere You Don’t Belong is a gift.
Fully realized characters are the lifeblood of this novel. Claude’s grandmother and her friend, Paul, are unforgettable. Paul, a gay man, is constantly searching for love and constantly finding himself heart-broken. His pursuits are both heart-breaking and darkly humorous. His exploits reminded me of a romance-seeking Don Quixote. Claude’s grandmother is a true matriarch, defending her home and family and meting out just punishment as necessary. She is powerful and clear-sighted.
The settings play an almost equally large part. First, the South Side is called violent. It’s where the riot caused by the killing by police of an unarmed black boy occurs. It’s where an army of drug pushers own turf and take up arms during the riot. It’s the place where innocent families are caught between police and the army of drug pushers. It’s the place that Claude wants to escape because he doesn’t feel like he belongs there. University offers an escape and Claude ends up in Missouri, the same place where his parents are presumed to have ended up–separately. But this smaller city in Missouri has its own problems. Just a walk along a trail shows how nature is dying and that there are larger issues all around. And this smaller Missouri city also has white boys who wear “Don’t Tred on Me” T-shirts and tell people with differently colored skin that they are what’s wrong with this country and they want the country back the way it was. (This fiction suddenly doesn’t feel all that fictional.) This small city is just another place where Claude doesn’t belong.
Perhaps out of all of my expectations at the outset what I didn’t expect was to enjoy this novel as much as I did. I read it in a little over an evening and think I should read it again, because there is just so much to it that I’m certain I would appreciate even more on a second reading.
I look forward to reading more of Gabriel Bump’s writing.
I received a copy of the novel from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.
My very first impression of Everywhere You Don’t Belong came from Bump’s writing. The voice he weaves throughout is mesmerizing, hypnotic, drawing the reader, as least this reader, in. The way he has some characters recount memories or philosophy is like poetry with its building repetition and lists, a rhythmic ebb and flow of words. After reading so many recent novels in which well-executed, beautiful prose is an after-thought, if even considered, Everywhere You Don’t Belong is a gift.
Fully realized characters are the lifeblood of this novel. Claude’s grandmother and her friend, Paul, are unforgettable. Paul, a gay man, is constantly searching for love and constantly finding himself heart-broken. His pursuits are both heart-breaking and darkly humorous. His exploits reminded me of a romance-seeking Don Quixote. Claude’s grandmother is a true matriarch, defending her home and family and meting out just punishment as necessary. She is powerful and clear-sighted.
The settings play an almost equally large part. First, the South Side is called violent. It’s where the riot caused by the killing by police of an unarmed black boy occurs. It’s where an army of drug pushers own turf and take up arms during the riot. It’s the place where innocent families are caught between police and the army of drug pushers. It’s the place that Claude wants to escape because he doesn’t feel like he belongs there. University offers an escape and Claude ends up in Missouri, the same place where his parents are presumed to have ended up–separately. But this smaller city in Missouri has its own problems. Just a walk along a trail shows how nature is dying and that there are larger issues all around. And this smaller Missouri city also has white boys who wear “Don’t Tred on Me” T-shirts and tell people with differently colored skin that they are what’s wrong with this country and they want the country back the way it was. (This fiction suddenly doesn’t feel all that fictional.) This small city is just another place where Claude doesn’t belong.
Perhaps out of all of my expectations at the outset what I didn’t expect was to enjoy this novel as much as I did. I read it in a little over an evening and think I should read it again, because there is just so much to it that I’m certain I would appreciate even more on a second reading.
I look forward to reading more of Gabriel Bump’s writing.
I received a copy of the novel from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest review.