Review by craftshley - As Far as You'll Take Me

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craftshley 's review for:

As Far as You'll Take Me by Phil Stamper

4.0

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

Marty arrives in London, out and proud, and ready to make his own life as an oboe player. Thing is, he didn’t get into the music program he’d been dreaming about, so he has to make his own way. That way being finding a position in some orchestra or other, without having the connections or even having ever lived in London. Only, it’s a lot harder than he made it out to be. Between a new guy, Pierce, and tons of new friends, Marty is feeling the pressure to be the ‘new’ Marty. The one who isn’t a ball of anxiety. The one who is sure of himself and is ready to put himself out there. Only, Marty isn’t really ready to be that guy, but he keeps pushing himself anyway.

I read ‘The Gravity of Us’ and enjoyed the premise but the execution fell flat for me. ‘As Far As You’ll Take Me’ met my every expectation and exceeded them. The way Stamper writes about anxiety had me from the first page of Marty’s journey. I read the book in two sittings, eagering going from one page to the next.

Marty is so confused and wrapped up in new experiences. He has new friends, people who support him and encourage him, rather than Megan, his supposed best friend back in Kentucky. She seems like such a piece of work, insulting Marty to push him out of his comfort zone, rather than listening to him. He could never open up to her in the way he’d been able to open up to his new friends in London that he’d only known for a week. I’m suspicious of Pierce from the start, the way he cozies up to Marty immediately. I suppose he has the benefit of having heard from Shane, Marty’s cousin, how awesome Marty is, and that he might have fallen for him before even meeting him. But I’m still very suspicious of his motives.

Marty is, too, but it’s hard to trust his perspective because he has anxiety and intrusive thoughts making him interpret things differently, reading into small details and making them into a negative outcome.

And there’s the whole lie aspect, in which Marty lied to his extremely religious parents about why he’s in London. He told them he’s attending a music program for three months when, in reality, he didn’t get into the program and he has no solid prospects. He, in fact, intends this trip to be him moving London without even telling them. The lie could fall apart any minute, if Megan decides to tell his parents, or his mom tries to talk to his aunt, her sister, Leah, about Marty, since Leah is supposed to be supervising this visit. Except she’s out of town for work. His parents don’t support him, either. Not really. They accept him in some ways, so long as no one knows. LIke, he’s okay. But the queer community as a whole is something to be feared, if not hated.

I appreciated that Stamper created a Spotify playlist for this book. I listened to a bit of it while I read. It’s a mixture of contemporary pop music, film scores, and stuff from musicals mentioned in the novel. It really set the scene and gave me some new (old) song suggestions to add to my own playlists!

I wish the diary entries had been more comprehensive, and in order, working up towards Marty’s previous London trip and audition the year before. They hint that something big happened while he was there, with his family, but the result is not as impactful as it should have been. Also, the beginning bits about London were a little trite. They were things that I think your average person with a habit of Googling everything, like Marty, would know and find normal. Like, him getting tripped up over what Brits call things versus what Americans call things and what phrases are used over there versus over here. None of the phrases he mentions as being British were out of the ordinary for my daily vocabulary and I’m American! It definitely jolted me out of the moment, his unnecessary mental gymnastics over chips versus fries versus chips. One mention of something like that is fine, but it went on for probably the first quarter of the novel.

Overall, the way in which Stamper writes anxiety, so authentic, drew me in and really let me read from Marty’s perspective, properly immersing me in his narrative. There are a couple of other triggers in here: anxiety, disordered eating, body image issues, homophobia, internalized and otherwise. There was no real resolution, no grand ending in which Marty lands the job of his dreams. He just takes more steps towards his goals and comes to accept himself a little more, and realizes that his worldview could use some changing. But, hey, he’s seventeen. He’s got time to find himself and he’s got some wonderful found family to help him along the way.

Content Warnings