Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by whatjasread
The Art of Escaping by Erin Callahan
2.0
This had the potential to be so much better than it was. in my opinion. I loved the escapology element of the novel, and although it was definitely a prominent part, it wasn't the only arc. There was Will's story arc, where he was conflicted about hiding his homosexuality. There were a lot of comparisons between Mattie hiding her escapology secret and Will hiding his homosexuality secret - these two just don't seem like they fit into the same category as each other, so their friendship was a weird one.
I did appreciate the diversity, but I think it could've been executed better. A lot of the 'acceptance' just read as quotes from Google Images which had been shoved into a novel to tell everyone that it's okay to be gay. And yes, I agree that gay is okay; what I don't agree with is the way Erin Callahan dealt with his homosexuality. She had the room to explore it further and I feel like she gave up halfway.
The characters were a little unbearable and cliche at times, and there was one instance where the chapter was repeated, just from someone else's perspective, and I feel like that was a waste of words which could've been used to explore something else (for example: Will's sexuality). I think the first person narrative was a mistake for this novel - even though we did get a lot of insight, it was very two-dimensional. A third person narrative would've been better I think - I would've liked to see more from Miyu's point of view, for example.
So, although the plot idea was great, its execution wasn't so great. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eBook of Callahan's novel.
I did appreciate the diversity, but I think it could've been executed better. A lot of the 'acceptance' just read as quotes from Google Images which had been shoved into a novel to tell everyone that it's okay to be gay. And yes, I agree that gay is okay; what I don't agree with is the way Erin Callahan dealt with his homosexuality. She had the room to explore it further and I feel like she gave up halfway.
The characters were a little unbearable and cliche at times, and there was one instance where the chapter was repeated, just from someone else's perspective, and I feel like that was a waste of words which could've been used to explore something else (for example: Will's sexuality). I think the first person narrative was a mistake for this novel - even though we did get a lot of insight, it was very two-dimensional. A third person narrative would've been better I think - I would've liked to see more from Miyu's point of view, for example.
So, although the plot idea was great, its execution wasn't so great. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an eBook of Callahan's novel.