Reviews - The First State of Being

415 reviews for:

The First State of Being

Erin Entrada Kelly

4.08 AVERAGE

randyreadsandknits's review

4.0

challenging emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

blankcrayon's review

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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: Complicated

When a book makes you cry in the end, you give it five stars.

A fitting tribute to When You Reach Me. The 1990s youth culture was a bonus. A book about time travel, maybe, but more so a book about living in the moment, optimism, friendship, and trying to do a little better each day.

Content Warnings

jeanilk's review

4.0

mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

hgraybrown's review

4.0

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

emilyb_chicago's review against another edition

3.0

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

The future part was fascinating, I loved the way the science was explained and enjoyed the interactions of the time traveler. But I don’t understand the setting of the story in 2199 and 1999. The joking about slang and other period specific comments were fun for me as someone who lived through the 1990s but would have gone over the head of a middle grader. In addition I found the main character to be whiny and his anxiety featured strongly as a part of the story. It tried too hard at the end to have a moral.