"When you're haunted by past lives, how can you live your own?"
☆
I'm doing something I almost never do when I'm reading something, making notes as I'm reading it. But something that I'm really enjoying about this book is how I can predict the literal responses Sam gives to things sometimes. (Possibly because it mirrors my own often sarcastic literal responses).
~
(As of writing I'm only 19 pages into this book, but already I'm loving it.) Having authentic autistic characters in books gives me some representation I didn't even know I was craving. Especially when it comes from an author who is a part of that community and implicitly understands some of experiences we have. While simultaneously also making it plain that every autistic person, and every non binary person, or person with a queer identity can have very different experiences and I'd different from other people with the same identity as them.
~
"You know, like that show with the autistic kid who knows every single Pokémon. That’s not always what it looks like, obviously. We’re not all the same."
~
This may easily just be me projecting, but between Sam and the people they meet, Shep, Sky and Aiden, they really feel like people in my own life. People who immediately grasped my name and pronouns and just made me feel comfortable as I am. None of them treated Sam any different for their gender identity, nor their autism and the traits they displayed. They simply tried to understand and help when they could.
~
I like that it doesn't fall back on the stereotypical representation of autistic people, and actively avoids them. I also like the inclusion of Sam's father bring probably aroace, though feel the romance subplot between Sam and Shep unnecessary (but I feel many ya books having romance subplots unnecessary anyway)
~
Ultimately, this is one of the best books I've read in a very long time. It's definitely a 5⭐ read and it deserves all the good reviews and praise it gets.

Content Warnings

onceuponabookcase's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I was sent this review copy for free by GMC Distribution on behalf of Astra Young Readers for the purposes of providing an honest review.

I was super excited for The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor from when I first heard about it. I believe it's the first YA book published in the UK by a non-binary author living in the UK. That's massive, and I was so keen to read it! And I loved it!

Sam is an autistic, queer, non-binary teen who is interested in people who died before they turned 19. They keep a scrapbook about them, their lives, and their deaths. After surviving a physical homophobic and transphobic attack, Sam and their dad have moved to Oregon to start afresh. But after only a few days, Sam realises they're living in the house of Billy Clement, one of the teens in their book. Everyone says it was a tragic accident, but there are things that just don't fit. With their new friends, Sam decides to figure out what happened to Billy, and get him Justice.

I honestly loved this book! I loved enjoyed MacGregor's writing; it flows so well, like water sliding over stones, and it was just so enjoyable to be carried along with it. I can't put my finger on exactly what, but there was something about the flow of the writing that's been missing from books I've read recently, so reading Sam Sylvester was like finding something you didn't know you had misplaced. Then there's Sam themself. I adored them! I cannot speak to the autism and non-binary rep, as I'm never, but Sam Sylvester is an #OwnVoices story, and it felt well done. It sounds like something that's really obvious, but Sam's autism is a part of who they are, part of their normal everyday life, finding it difficult to read people sometimes, or feeling overwhelmed on occasion, for example. This isn't something I've read before in books with autistic characters, and I think it's because this isn't a book about a person with autism, it's about a person solving a murder. Sam is autistic, and it's a big part of their life and who they are, but that's not what the story is about, you know? So it felt very different to me, that it wasn't the sole focus.

Sam Sylvester touches on many serious topics, some briefly, some longer. Sam has been through a great deal. Because they're autistic, they were in foster care until they were 7, when they were adopted by their dad, Junius. Sam is white, and Junius is Black, and the book touches on the question in people's faces about their family when they realise their relationship. Junius (who is aroace) is also a single father, adopting Sam on his own. The story even touches on the difficulties Junius experienced as a Black man having to deal with the police when Sam was attacked. He's also the best freaking dad to have ever existed! He's extremely supportive and understands Sam and their needs. I'm not sure I've ever read a more loving dad. But he's also concerned, because of Sam's attack and their trauma, and wanting to keep them safe. So when they're bullied at school, he becomes increasingly concerned - but Sam is actually feeling like they've found their place for the first time in their life, where they're fully accepted for who they are by their new friends and their teachers. Sam has experienced trauma, though, and it's almost ever-present in their life, even when they're doing ok. Sam also has anxiety, and because they're autistic, there are a few moments when things are difficult to process and overwhelming for them. Then there are instances of homophobia, biphobia and bi-erasure experienced by Sam's friends. There's this one moment when a boy admits to being attracted to Sam, but, as Sam isn't a girl, is confused about what that means about his sexuality. It was such a beautiful moment, because even though Sam is frustrated and uncomfortable by this guy asking them if they're gay now, you can still feel the tenderness towards this character in their confusion. There are actually a few characters in this book that you might think on first meeting them that they're going to cause problems for Sam, but actually turn out to be good people. They may not get everything right, but they're trying, and are accepting of Sam. It was refreshing, and really sweet.

The mystery itself is a major, major slow burn. This isn't really the kind of story where you can come up with many theories of what happened, because there isn't a huge amount of sleuthing. A conversation will be had, or someone will do something that has Sam connecting dots, but it seems mostly to come without any proper evidence. They're really small things, so it's almost a bit of a leap that Sam takes at times. To be honest, I wasn't really invested in the mystery. I don't think it was tight enough or developed well enough. This isn't really a story with twists and turns that will keep you sitting on the edge of your seat. If I was reviewing this book solely on the mystery, this review would probably be quite a negative review. The reveal was a little disappointing; I didn't see it coming, because it's such a slow burn mystery, there isn't much to base theories on, but once you do realise who was behind the murder and why, it just fell a little flat for me. I also didn't really feel the romance between Sam and Shep. Honestly, beyond Sam's relationship with Junius, I feel most of the relationships were underdeveloped to a certain degree. I could see why they all liked each other, I just didn't see what the fact that they're alls such good friends was based on.

But as I said, I adored the writing, and I loved Sam. They're such a fully formed character, reading this book was like hanging out with a friend. There were definitely aspects of this book that could have been better, but you don't really needs a reason to spend time with someone you like, and that's what reading this book was like for me. I'm not sure that really sells the story, but I loved this book a hell of a lot simply because of Sam, and I think that says something.

Thank you to Astra Young Readers and GMC Distribution for the review copy.

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

legalplanner's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

LGBTQIA+, gender identity, and autistic positive, with a taste of mystery that seriously had me looped in from the get go.

Sam is 18, an adoptee, a survivor, and honestly a great lead voice for this novel. When we meet Sam they have just moved into their new home with their dad. We don’t necessarily know why they moved other than the “incident” as we get to know the background on Sam and their dad we get to know that life has twists and turns and we as children deserve a safe place to learn.

I loved the positive characters and characteristics of those in the LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and gender spectrums/areas. They did not feel tokenized or over the top or even like they were only there for brownie points. Their presence was necessary, but their characteristics were secondary.

The mystery that is Billy was interesting to follow and I was fully invested in figuring out what was going on and can understand why Shep and Sam wanted to find the answers.

I would hands down suggest this to everyone and anyone that would listen because this felt like it was focused on the story not the qualities of a person in a bad way. I wanted to follow more I wanted to lunch people for Sam. It was a wonderful voice, story, and I appreciate the realness of Sam. So often a autistic person doesn’t show their stemming or even mention it in books and it’s mentioned here casually because it happens it’s not something that just doesn’t exist. That meant a lot to me.

Overall this is a 5star review and I can’t wait to grab my physical copy to add to my library of books.

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

imstephtacular's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

melaniereadsbooks's review

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Thank you to Astra Publishing and Netgalley for an arc of this book.

After a nearly life-ending attack when Sam lived in Montana, they move to Astoria, Oregon with their adoptive father to try and start over. But what Sam's dad doesn't know is that they think they won't make it to their 19th birthday and join the book full of other teenagers who died too young--including the one that died in their very house.

I loved this mystery/thriller so so much! I was completely absorbed throughout the entire book and really consumed it quickly. Sam is such an amazing character and I loved the many aspects to their identity. They actually remind me a bit of one of my students and it made me a little weepy. Also their dad, Junius, is probably the best adult to ever exist in a YA book ever? Like...I love him so much. He's aroace and so supportive and loving and absolutely there for Sam and takes in Sam's new friends like they are his own. I just really am here for a supportive father!

All of the side characters were also amazing. I loved all of them. Shep is an adorable and wonderful love interest and I just want to give her a hug and tell her everything will be okay! I also loved Sky and Aidan and the supportive teachers and other friends that they had throughout the book.

I highly highly recommend this one!

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