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A review by katiemichellereads
Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
1.0
This review might be a mess.
After finishing this book, I had to step back and think about it for awhile. I've often done this with books that portray disabilities-I'll have the sense that something felt wrong, felt off, but I don't know where to begin putting that into words.
First, I think it's worth mentioning that there were so many things to like about this book. I flew through it, constantly needing to know what was happening. I was super attached to the characters. This entire book was written in letters and the boys' voices were both so clear and real. The plot was also intriguing and kept me guessing the whole way through, although I admit I was underwhelmed by the ending. It felt unrealistic, and I really disliked the way things played out with Ollie, especially. (Trying to stay spoiler-free!)
If there weren't real-life disabilities involved in this plot, I would have probably given it four or five stars. But epilepsy and blindness are real things that affect real people, and in the end I couldn't get past the fact that they were used as a plot device. I can't get over the fact that Moritz could "see" everything clearly (like, he mentions individual eyelashes and dust mites as examples) through his advanced use of echolocation. From the start, this struck me as not only unrealistic, but as a way to avoid writing actual blindness. There was no reason to give a disability to a character and then find something to counteract that so that they weren't actually disabled at all-except for the fact that it becomes part a major plot point later on.
I don't feel as though I can explain what upset me about Ollie without spoilers, but I do hate the ending he got. And the idea that some of the characters (especially Liz, the love interest) had about "curing" Ollie's seizures disgusted me. She acted as though he could power through it, like if he could be strong enough, brave enough, have enough willpower, he could defeat his epilepsy. I honestly expected this train of thought to be fought against-I expected Liz to become a sort of villain here, because surely it was obvious she was being terrible. Instead, I feel like her theories were supported in the context of the book.
I wanted so much to love this one, and in a lot of ways I did-which is why this review took so much time for me to write. I had to wait it out, I had to scribble thoughts down multiple times, and finally I came up with something that I hope makes sense. For all the parts I adored about this book, I really can't get over the portrayal of the disabilities. I do think, with the direction the plot went, that perhaps something fake would have worked in the place of these real-world disabilities--but as it is, some aspects really bothered me.
After finishing this book, I had to step back and think about it for awhile. I've often done this with books that portray disabilities-I'll have the sense that something felt wrong, felt off, but I don't know where to begin putting that into words.
First, I think it's worth mentioning that there were so many things to like about this book. I flew through it, constantly needing to know what was happening. I was super attached to the characters. This entire book was written in letters and the boys' voices were both so clear and real. The plot was also intriguing and kept me guessing the whole way through, although I admit I was underwhelmed by the ending. It felt unrealistic, and I really disliked the way things played out with Ollie, especially. (Trying to stay spoiler-free!)
If there weren't real-life disabilities involved in this plot, I would have probably given it four or five stars. But epilepsy and blindness are real things that affect real people, and in the end I couldn't get past the fact that they were used as a plot device. I can't get over the fact that Moritz could "see" everything clearly (like, he mentions individual eyelashes and dust mites as examples) through his advanced use of echolocation. From the start, this struck me as not only unrealistic, but as a way to avoid writing actual blindness. There was no reason to give a disability to a character and then find something to counteract that so that they weren't actually disabled at all-except for the fact that it becomes part a major plot point later on.
I don't feel as though I can explain what upset me about Ollie without spoilers, but I do hate the ending he got. And the idea that some of the characters (especially Liz, the love interest) had about "curing" Ollie's seizures disgusted me. She acted as though he could power through it, like if he could be strong enough, brave enough, have enough willpower, he could defeat his epilepsy. I honestly expected this train of thought to be fought against-I expected Liz to become a sort of villain here, because surely it was obvious she was being terrible. Instead, I feel like her theories were supported in the context of the book.
I wanted so much to love this one, and in a lot of ways I did-which is why this review took so much time for me to write. I had to wait it out, I had to scribble thoughts down multiple times, and finally I came up with something that I hope makes sense. For all the parts I adored about this book, I really can't get over the portrayal of the disabilities. I do think, with the direction the plot went, that perhaps something fake would have worked in the place of these real-world disabilities--but as it is, some aspects really bothered me.