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A review by dtaylorbooks
Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin
5.0
This book is nine different level of FUCKING AWESOME! I don't know what's better; the total snark attack or the fact that the plot is so FUBAR that you have to read it again and again and again because it's twisted your brain into a knot and no matter how much you squint, you just can't untie it.
This is not a book you can just skim through because if you do, you'll be more lost than Hansel and Gretel. You have to pay attention. And if you do, you will be amply rewarded and quite possibly become a Sean Beadoin fangirl/boy by the end of it.
It starts off so linear. A little odd, but linear, normal. Your regular, slightly funky story. And then the weird shit gets weirder but running right along next to it, the fuzziness of all of the situations starts to get clearer. I'm sure that makes zero sense. Weirder and weirder but clearer and clearer. I'm not about to spoil and if I say anything about anything, it'll give it away. Just trust me on this.
I love the language of the characters. It's probably the most realistic I've read in any YA book (which is one big bucket of ironic considering the story, read it and you'll get me). It's not that faux trying-to-be-hip-and-current language that the likes of other YA books try to sound like. The dialogue, the jam, just read so naturally. The OS's upspeak is the shit. Because you know you know someone that sounds like they end all their sentences in questions. You know you do. But how often is that portrayed in YA despite the fact that it goes on all the time? Rarely. You get authors trying to bank on the dialogue but never on the actual patterns. Beaudoin does that. He doesn't rely on colloquialisms of the day to get through. It's all about sentence structure. You know "they" say that that good writers can portray accents not through phonetics but through structure. And it's true.
And this is quite possibly one of the most intricately written books I've ever read. And not just in YA. There is nothing simple in this book despite how simple it appears or how you think you've got it all figured out. You're wrong. The skill that a writer needs to write something so non-linear and so utterly fucked up but keep it this intact and understandable is phenomenal. It makes my writing so one dimensional and makes Beaudoin's look like a nine-sided Rubik's Cube. Sure, everything comes together in the end . . . except there's that one stupid red square in with all those yellows that just . . . won't . . . go . . . back . . .
I have nothing to complain about with this book. And you all know me. Even if I love it there's usually something I can point out. Nope. Not here. I wouldn't call it perfect but this is the kind of writing I'm jealous of. If you like books that really make you think while holding you on the edge of your seat while you flip page after page after page because it's your crack, read this. Read it now. Even the comic in the middle is wicked. A book with pictures! Yay! But seriously. Read it.
This is not a book you can just skim through because if you do, you'll be more lost than Hansel and Gretel. You have to pay attention. And if you do, you will be amply rewarded and quite possibly become a Sean Beadoin fangirl/boy by the end of it.
It starts off so linear. A little odd, but linear, normal. Your regular, slightly funky story. And then the weird shit gets weirder but running right along next to it, the fuzziness of all of the situations starts to get clearer. I'm sure that makes zero sense. Weirder and weirder but clearer and clearer. I'm not about to spoil and if I say anything about anything, it'll give it away. Just trust me on this.
I love the language of the characters. It's probably the most realistic I've read in any YA book (which is one big bucket of ironic considering the story, read it and you'll get me). It's not that faux trying-to-be-hip-and-current language that the likes of other YA books try to sound like. The dialogue, the jam, just read so naturally. The OS's upspeak is the shit. Because you know you know someone that sounds like they end all their sentences in questions. You know you do. But how often is that portrayed in YA despite the fact that it goes on all the time? Rarely. You get authors trying to bank on the dialogue but never on the actual patterns. Beaudoin does that. He doesn't rely on colloquialisms of the day to get through. It's all about sentence structure. You know "they" say that that good writers can portray accents not through phonetics but through structure. And it's true.
And this is quite possibly one of the most intricately written books I've ever read. And not just in YA. There is nothing simple in this book despite how simple it appears or how you think you've got it all figured out. You're wrong. The skill that a writer needs to write something so non-linear and so utterly fucked up but keep it this intact and understandable is phenomenal. It makes my writing so one dimensional and makes Beaudoin's look like a nine-sided Rubik's Cube. Sure, everything comes together in the end . . . except there's that one stupid red square in with all those yellows that just . . . won't . . . go . . . back . . .
I have nothing to complain about with this book. And you all know me. Even if I love it there's usually something I can point out. Nope. Not here. I wouldn't call it perfect but this is the kind of writing I'm jealous of. If you like books that really make you think while holding you on the edge of your seat while you flip page after page after page because it's your crack, read this. Read it now. Even the comic in the middle is wicked. A book with pictures! Yay! But seriously. Read it.