Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

If you're looking for something to read after watching Heartstopper and you've already read all of Alice Oseman's books, look no further! This book has STELLAR representation. It is darker than Oseman's books because of the heavier emphasis on trauma, but in the background it's a story about queer joy, and healthy boundaries, and respect.

We meet Sam Sylvester, who's just moved in with their dad in a new city, ready for a new beginning. We know from early on that something terrible happened to Sam, triggering the move. But they're determined to leave it as much behind as possible, and focus on their passions. Or obsessions. One of these is the recording of "half-lives" - fragments of life from teenagers who died before reaching their 19th birthdays... A date which is coming soon for Sam. What they hadn't expected was that one of the teens had lived in Sam's new house... and died there.

This book was a-mazing. Such a gift. I didn't want it to end but I couldn't stop reading either. It was just full of love and even though some dark things happen, it made my heart full. If I had to say one specific thing that particularly brought me joy... Junius. Sam's Black, aro-ace, single dad is too precious for this world and will soothe your heartaches page after page.

Rep: non-binary autistic MC on the ace spectrum. The author, as they say in the acknowledgments, is queer, non-binary and autistic.

Content Warnings

ankonyx's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? No

3.5

Content Warnings

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

sarah984's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.5

I feel terrible giving this book such a low rating but I didn't like it at all.

I will say first off that I really liked Sam's relationship with their dad, and the way that emotions are described being interpreted through facial expressions and the general autistic point of view.

Every character that wasn't Sam or their dad was pretty one-note, though. I kept forgetting about Sky even though he was part of the core friend group, and it took me like half the book to realize Aidan and Dylan were two different guys. There were two different characters whose entire personality was "mean girl". The slang is really embarrassing (stop saying emoji!) and the constant brand name and meme references are already dated.

The mystery was also just really bad. The perpetrator is pretty easy to guess

because it's the one adult with zero redeeming qualities.

The author also seems to want to write a book where true crime sleuths save the day while acknowledging how damaging and ghoulish true crime superfans can be and that did not work for me. The way everything worked out comes across as "digging at old wounds and invading peoples' privacy is bad unless I do it."

Content Warnings

benediction's review

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dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

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