A review by legalplanner
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

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.  
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