Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester

I don't even exactly know where to start or end but this book was wonderful.

I'm usually not big on murder mystery but I guess if you package it in a YA queer contemporary with a wonderful protagonist it works. I really enjoyed Sam's POV, learning more about how they see the world and of course the wonderful realizations they had when they were finally surrounded by good friends. And my god are good friends groups one of my favorite things in literature. Sam, Shep, Sky, Aidan, and Ronnie and Jax, too, are such a wonderful group and I just wish everyone could be surrounded by such a safe group of people.

I think while this might sound cheesy one of my other favorite things was the wonderful representation we had in this book. Sam is autistic and nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, and they also identify themselves as panromantic and being on the ace spectrum. We also see Latina, Black, Vietnamese, bi, and aroace rep (and more I'm sure) in Sam's friend group and in the LGBTQIA+ club at school.

The murder mystery part starts slowly and then grows more apparent towards the second half of the book when it becomes obvious that Sam and Shep have stirred a pot that somebody clearly doesn't want to have stirred. I really liked the dynamic development and without any spoilers - I didn't guess who the murder was.

And just for a little bit of emotional pain, because Sam was really good at inflicting that on me:

"I'm not afraid of the dead, Dad. They're dead. [...] The living are scarier."

Content Warnings

buttermellow's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

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spark_879'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

5.0

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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

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."

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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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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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