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lectrixnoctis's review
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Phil Stamper, who grew up in a rural village near Dayton, Ohio, released "As Far As You'll Take Me" as his second novel. However, you can tell he is no stranger to writing since he has an M.A. in Publishing with Creative Writing from Kingston University.
"As Far As You'll Take Me" is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about finding people who would always stand by your side.
Marty is a seventeen-year-old boy from Kentucky who flys to London with nothing but his oboe and some money from his summer job. Nonetheless, he is excited to finally live his life without being closeted and trying to slip under the radar. Marty's life looks perfect from the outside: he made friends in less than a few weeks, is closer to having his first relationship, and travels around Europe. But that is just a facade. Marty has not spoken to his deeply religious parents since he arrived in London. After some time, he is tearing his savings, and his anxiety only gets worse and worse. Additionally, he has not come close to finding his dream job in London.
This book is quite tough to rate. I believe I should be the targeted audience. However, I found most characters annoying and somewhat childish. Marty was incredibly naive. Who would move in their right mind to London without any prospects and any plan? He wanted to go to music school but was not accepted, and he only knows his aunt Leah and his cousin Shane there. Did Marty think it easy to find a job in Europe and especially in London of all places?!
As already mentioned, most characters aren't likeable and do not support the plot at all. Most of them could have been cut out, and it would not affect the story much. Marty's love interest Pierce and his best friend Megan were unlikable and even shitty people in general. Marty desperately tries to be the perfect match for Pierce while being extremely ignorant of other people.
Another thing that struggles me was how ignorant Marty, in general, was. His mother is Irish, but it was not specified if she is from Northern Ireland or not. If she is from Northern Ireland, Marty would have British citizenship, but since she is catholic, I believe she is from the republic from Irland. I dispersed the fact that it was never mentioned. Why would not Marty know that British people are different from your average Americans? Furthermore, the author states that you can not find a good coffee shop in London is just laughable. The tea cliche and the British-American word confusing is a bit out of place since Marty's mum is Irish.
Marty mentions that Shane does have an incredibly thick Irish accent, but he mainly lived in London. That sounds super odd in my option. Even if his mum is from Ireland, the child would not have such a strong accent if he spent most of his life in London. I know that is nitpicking, but it really bothered me, and some of the realism went away with it.
Furthermore, I wouldn't say I liked the depiction of religion in this book. I understand that many queer people have a problematic relationship with the church and religion in general. But sometimes, the book felt like it was trying to convince you how lousy believing is and why you should see abdomen faith, and this is coming from an agnostic.
I did not enjoyed the story one bit and only gave 2/5 stars since I like Stamper's writing style. The story felt lacklustre and ignorant to other cultures other than American. I would not recommend this book, but if you're going to read a book by Phil Stamper, please choose "The Gravity of Us". It was much more enjoyable than this.
"As Far As You'll Take Me" is a heartfelt coming-of-age story about finding people who would always stand by your side.
Marty is a seventeen-year-old boy from Kentucky who flys to London with nothing but his oboe and some money from his summer job. Nonetheless, he is excited to finally live his life without being closeted and trying to slip under the radar. Marty's life looks perfect from the outside: he made friends in less than a few weeks, is closer to having his first relationship, and travels around Europe. But that is just a facade. Marty has not spoken to his deeply religious parents since he arrived in London. After some time, he is tearing his savings, and his anxiety only gets worse and worse. Additionally, he has not come close to finding his dream job in London.
This book is quite tough to rate. I believe I should be the targeted audience. However, I found most characters annoying and somewhat childish. Marty was incredibly naive. Who would move in their right mind to London without any prospects and any plan? He wanted to go to music school but was not accepted, and he only knows his aunt Leah and his cousin Shane there. Did Marty think it easy to find a job in Europe and especially in London of all places?!
As already mentioned, most characters aren't likeable and do not support the plot at all. Most of them could have been cut out, and it would not affect the story much. Marty's love interest Pierce and his best friend Megan were unlikable and even shitty people in general. Marty desperately tries to be the perfect match for Pierce while being extremely ignorant of other people.
Another thing that struggles me was how ignorant Marty, in general, was. His mother is Irish, but it was not specified if she is from Northern Ireland or not. If she is from Northern Ireland, Marty would have British citizenship, but since she is catholic, I believe she is from the republic from Irland. I dispersed the fact that it was never mentioned. Why would not Marty know that British people are different from your average Americans? Furthermore, the author states that you can not find a good coffee shop in London is just laughable. The tea cliche and the British-American word confusing is a bit out of place since Marty's mum is Irish.
Marty mentions that Shane does have an incredibly thick Irish accent, but he mainly lived in London. That sounds super odd in my option. Even if his mum is from Ireland, the child would not have such a strong accent if he spent most of his life in London. I know that is nitpicking, but it really bothered me, and some of the realism went away with it.
Furthermore, I wouldn't say I liked the depiction of religion in this book. I understand that many queer people have a problematic relationship with the church and religion in general. But sometimes, the book felt like it was trying to convince you how lousy believing is and why you should see abdomen faith, and this is coming from an agnostic.
I did not enjoyed the story one bit and only gave 2/5 stars since I like Stamper's writing style. The story felt lacklustre and ignorant to other cultures other than American. I would not recommend this book, but if you're going to read a book by Phil Stamper, please choose "The Gravity of Us". It was much more enjoyable than this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Outing, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Self harm, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Cheatingrissamouse's review against another edition
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder and Mental illness
mayaminushkin's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
I've never been so conflicted with a book. I understand the importance of talking about toxic relationships, disordered eating, anxiety etc., but I don't know if it was just a little too relatable, a little too real, that made me angry with it. It took me forever to finish I just couldn't get into it the way I wanted to.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Homophobia, and Mental illness
fayereadsbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would. As Far As You'll Take Me is a book about moving away to try and find yourself more but it includes discussion on much more than that. For a book that's quite short (just over 300 pages), it tried to pack in so many complex, important topics so I did feel like there was too much going on to complete and conclude every aspect of the story.
I really didn't like the love interest, Pierce. I think that's kind of the point- Marty has a few doubts about the relationship, the side characters warn him of Pierce and the reader can see all the ways he is bad. But reading about a character I disliked meant I didn't enjoy it particularly much. The side characters seemed interesting but there were so many that I often lost track of who was who and couldn't see much of them in a short book.
This book is very personal to the author, he mentions in the author note how each aspect (living in London, moving away etc) was personal to them so I am in no way criticising there autobiographical experiences. I just feel like a slightly longer book, with maybe fewer complex topics involved would have worked a bit better
I really didn't like the love interest, Pierce. I think that's kind of the point- Marty has a few doubts about the relationship, the side characters warn him of Pierce and the reader can see all the ways he is bad. But reading about a character I disliked meant I didn't enjoy it particularly much. The side characters seemed interesting but there were so many that I often lost track of who was who and couldn't see much of them in a short book.
This book is very personal to the author, he mentions in the author note how each aspect (living in London, moving away etc) was personal to them so I am in no way criticising there autobiographical experiences. I just feel like a slightly longer book, with maybe fewer complex topics involved would have worked a bit better
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship
toxic friendship, outing, anxietymelaniereadsbooks's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I enjoyed this book a lot. Marty was an interesting character and I really respected the fact that he was brave enough to move to London by himself!!! And travel, and do so many other things! It was really nice to see a character living with chronic anxiety that didn't let it stop him from living his life. Sure there were a lot of things it kept him from doing, but he kept trying and pushing himself and learning and growing. I really enjoyed that.
All of the parts revolving around crash dieting really got to me. Definitely watch out for that if eating disorders are something that triggers you. There were other aspects of this book that also weren't super fun to read. A lot of the people in Marty's life were really terrible people.
Luckily, he also had some family and new friends that were there for him and helped him out! I love the found family trope and it was heartwarming to find this one. I also enjoyed the musical aspects!
All of the parts revolving around crash dieting really got to me. Definitely watch out for that if eating disorders are something that triggers you. There were other aspects of this book that also weren't super fun to read. A lot of the people in Marty's life were really terrible people.
Luckily, he also had some family and new friends that were there for him and helped him out! I love the found family trope and it was heartwarming to find this one. I also enjoyed the musical aspects!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Bullying
Outting, coercioncarolineva's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Eating disorder and Mental illness
Minor: Fatphobia
cameronjames's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, and Body shaming
thedambookshelf's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
2.5 stars
To start off I want to thank NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an e-arc for As Far As You'll Take Me in exchange for an honest review. I started reading this before the publishing date and honestly considered DNFing it more than a handful of times, but I kept pushing through and finally finished it. I do appreciate the number of own voice authors creating real-world queer stories but this wasn't one I'd personally recommend nor can I say will sit with me.
I had a lot of issues with the storytelling, this writing style just isn't for me. I've grown out of the YA contemporary phase but I do try to get my hands on lgbtq+ reads no matter the genre. I felt that the maturity level of this story could have been higher, Marty is a graduate of high school trying to find his place in the world as an adult. In my opinion, that should have led this story to have a more mature tone but it didn't. I know it was targeted for Young Adults but it just seemed so off.
Marty was a very irritating main character, and this book tried to tackle a lot of different issues including mental health, eating disorders, forced outing, and homophobia. As much as I love books that raise awareness of such things this book didn't do that for me, not on a positive note. I found a lot of the decisions from Marty to be very toxic and he was just very immature as I stated above.
It's disappointing because I did have high expectations for this book and I was let down. There were some good aspects just not enough to say this was an okay read for me.
To start off I want to thank NetGalley and Bloomsbury for providing me with an e-arc for As Far As You'll Take Me in exchange for an honest review. I started reading this before the publishing date and honestly considered DNFing it more than a handful of times, but I kept pushing through and finally finished it. I do appreciate the number of own voice authors creating real-world queer stories but this wasn't one I'd personally recommend nor can I say will sit with me.
I had a lot of issues with the storytelling, this writing style just isn't for me. I've grown out of the YA contemporary phase but I do try to get my hands on lgbtq+ reads no matter the genre. I felt that the maturity level of this story could have been higher, Marty is a graduate of high school trying to find his place in the world as an adult. In my opinion, that should have led this story to have a more mature tone but it didn't. I know it was targeted for Young Adults but it just seemed so off.
Marty was a very irritating main character, and this book tried to tackle a lot of different issues including mental health, eating disorders, forced outing, and homophobia. As much as I love books that raise awareness of such things this book didn't do that for me, not on a positive note. I found a lot of the decisions from Marty to be very toxic and he was just very immature as I stated above.
It's disappointing because I did have high expectations for this book and I was let down. There were some good aspects just not enough to say this was an okay read for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Toxic relationship
typedtruths's review against another edition
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Homophobia
beckyann1110's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Sweet; definitely the kind of YA that's aimed toward the wide eyes of youth, rather than aimed to be universally appealing to adults of all ages. It also depicts anxiety and disordered eating, in ways that felt very honest at times, but professional help or medication as viable options weren't seriously mentioned (despite being in a country with universal healthcare) -- instead there was a breakthrough moment in coping with these disorders that strained credulity. As someone who's dealt with depressive anxiety for years in many differing ways, I was disappointed with that "going it alone" mental health approach, which isn't likely to be effective and can actually cause more harm.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Fatphobia and Body shaming