Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

44 reviews

aexileigh's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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betweentheshelves's review

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emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

Not only is there great representation in this (the main character is nonbinary, autistic, and on the ace spectrum!) but I thoroughly enjoyed the mystery in here. There's a few hints of something almost supernatural at work (kind of like a ghost), and the characters were great. I especially loved Sam's relationship with their dad. Seeing such a supportive dad in a YA book like this is something I love to see. And a single dad at that!

I will say I didn't necessarily think the romance was necessary for the plot, and it fell a little flat for me. It almost felt like it happened too quickly, and I think I would have rathered that maybe it was just a hint at the end of the story.

However, the mystery worked so well, with strong twists and turns unfolding at every turn. If you like your mysteries with a contemporary spin, I'd definitely recommend this one!

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phoxyphoenix's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

anniereads221's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This book made me emotional in a way i did not quite expect from a paranormal mystery. Sam is non-binary like me. Autistic like me. And asexual like me. And i can't believe there is a character that is like me in those ways all at the same time. They are probably one of my favourite characters. I really enjoyed this book so much. I have not read an autistic character that i have related so much to before with certain things. This book really pulled off the mystery aspect for me. This is a favourite for sure

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platoniciris's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This book, wow. This book was something else entirely from anything I was expecting. I loved every page of it. It was intimidating as it’s outside my usual genres but I would read this again.

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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.

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mariebrunelm's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

After a series of meh books I was doubting my ability to fall in love with a book. Thankfulky Maya MacGregor had my back!

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.

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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

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."

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lettuce_read's review against another edition

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4.0

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