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smartinez9 's review for:
The Boy Who Lived In The Ceiling
by Cara Thurlbourn
4.5
This was absolutely beautiful. I stayed up til 4 in the morning to finish it. One of the most human, lovely YA contemporaries I have read in a long time, it portrayed two very real characters just doing their best to go on. The relationships were three dimensional and complex, the side-characters nuanced, and a sense of hope pervaded the story as Freddie met with compassion after having given up on it. The author’s accurate depiction of grief, love, and the highs and lows of family was masterfully done and didn’t try to reduce them to something easily defined. Shoutout to Jamie and Scruff, my lovelies. Them and the overall depth of the characters, the cozy atmosphere, and the realism really made this one stand out for me.
My only criticisms that keep it from being a 5-star: Not much diversity. A smidge of I’m-not-like-other-girls-ism with the mention of those vacuous ones with “long hair and full-lips,” but pretty tame as things go. I appreciated the depth to Aisla. Also, an unnecessarily dramatic miscommunication towards the end, but it resolved quickly and wasn’t egregious.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
This was absolutely beautiful. I stayed up til 4 in the morning to finish it. One of the most human, lovely YA contemporaries I have read in a long time, it portrayed two very real characters just doing their best to go on. The relationships were three dimensional and complex, the side-characters nuanced, and a sense of hope pervaded the story as Freddie met with compassion after having given up on it. The author’s accurate depiction of grief, love, and the highs and lows of family was masterfully done and didn’t try to reduce them to something easily defined. Shoutout to Jamie and Scruff, my lovelies. Them and the overall depth of the characters, the cozy atmosphere, and the realism really made this one stand out for me.
My only criticisms that keep it from being a 5-star: Not much diversity. A smidge of I’m-not-like-other-girls-ism with the mention of those vacuous ones with “long hair and full-lips,” but pretty tame as things go. I appreciated the depth to Aisla. Also, an unnecessarily dramatic miscommunication towards the end, but it resolved quickly and wasn’t egregious.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.