Realistic fiction has always been one of my biggest staples when it comes to reading. Sure, I like fantasy worlds and futuristic societies, but books about real life experiences set in the modern day will always stay close to my heart, especially now that I'm growing up. That's why most of the books I read are in this genre, this book included.
I was immediately sucked into reading this book via the tagline: "This is a story of a girl, her gay best friend, and the boy in love with both of them." The possibility of a bisexual love triangle was calling out to me, and the actual plot itself sounded interesting. Books about characters breaking out of their shells are always fun to read, and when I got this book from the library, I was ready to become a fan of Fans of the Impossible Life.
What exactly happened in Fans of the Impossible Life? Was it a rewarding, satisfying read that followed interesting characters and a heartfelt character arc? Or was it an average, run-of-the-mill realistic fiction novel that did nothing to stand out?
Despite going into this book with positive expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by what Fans of the Impossible Life brought to the table, particularly in terms of its LGBT characters (yay!) and its discussion of social anxiety, depression, and substance issues. However, the book isn't exactly perfect, and although most of it was nice, the late climax and the weird and somewhat open ending really kept this from being a five star read. Even with those nitpicks, Fans of the Impossible Life was still a great book, one that I would definitely recommend to a book club.
The book focuses on three high school sophomores: Jeremy, Mira, and Sebby. All three of them have chapters with their point of views, but their passages are written in different styles (Jeremy's sections are in first person (I), Mira's are in third person (she), and Sebby's are in second person (you) (choose your own adventure, anyone?)). As the styles are different from chapter to chapter, they tend to clash and become jarring, and it often takes a while to settle into third person after reading a chapter inside Jeremy's head.
Back to the synopsis of the novel. Jeremy is heading back to St. Francis Prep, the school he's been to since kindergarten, after an incident last year caused him to isolate himself from his peers. This year, he's planning on keeping himself unnoticed, but his English teacher (who has become a dear friend to him) has other ideas.
I was immediately sucked into reading this book via the tagline: "This is a story of a girl, her gay best friend, and the boy in love with both of them." The possibility of a bisexual love triangle was calling out to me, and the actual plot itself sounded interesting. Books about characters breaking out of their shells are always fun to read, and when I got this book from the library, I was ready to become a fan of Fans of the Impossible Life.
What exactly happened in Fans of the Impossible Life? Was it a rewarding, satisfying read that followed interesting characters and a heartfelt character arc? Or was it an average, run-of-the-mill realistic fiction novel that did nothing to stand out?
Despite going into this book with positive expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by what Fans of the Impossible Life brought to the table, particularly in terms of its LGBT characters (yay!) and its discussion of social anxiety, depression, and substance issues. However, the book isn't exactly perfect, and although most of it was nice, the late climax and the weird and somewhat open ending really kept this from being a five star read. Even with those nitpicks, Fans of the Impossible Life was still a great book, one that I would definitely recommend to a book club.
The book focuses on three high school sophomores: Jeremy, Mira, and Sebby. All three of them have chapters with their point of views, but their passages are written in different styles (Jeremy's sections are in first person (I), Mira's are in third person (she), and Sebby's are in second person (you) (choose your own adventure, anyone?)). As the styles are different from chapter to chapter, they tend to clash and become jarring, and it often takes a while to settle into third person after reading a chapter inside Jeremy's head.
Back to the synopsis of the novel. Jeremy is heading back to St. Francis Prep, the school he's been to since kindergarten, after an incident last year caused him to isolate himself from his peers. This year, he's planning on keeping himself unnoticed, but his English teacher (who has become a dear friend to him) has other ideas.
'"New club registration," I read. "They're looking to fill out the after-school club roster, and I thought that you might be interested in starting an art club." "Me?" [Peter] laid the piece of paper down on top of my open book. "Just get any ten student signatures and you've got yourself a club. I'll be your adviser." I could feel my hands start to sweat as I stared at those lines. Ten people. I hadn't talked to ten people in the past week.' (pg. 30-31)
Despite Jeremy's nervousness, there's one student that he thinks could help him: Mira, a girl in his English class. When he meets with her after school in the courtyard and meets her flamboyant friend, Sebby, his life becomes much more eventful than he ever would have expected.
Mira is new to St. Francis. She's been battling with depression for the past couple of years, and after landing in the hospital and being away from her original public school for nine months, she's ready for a fresh start (well, sort of). When she should be in classes, she spends time in the nurse's office, and it's only when she's with Sebby that she even feels remotely alive.
'"That kid was cute," Sebby said. "Art boy? Jeremy?" "Yeah. Art boy was cute, right?" "You flirted shamelessly," [Mira] said. "That wasn't flirting. That's how I say hello." "You were shameless." They kept walking, away from the offensive clothing toward the less controversial chocolate-and-candy section. "So which one of us should take him to prom?" Sebby asked.' (pg. 41-42)
As Mira's family remains ignorant about the true extent of Mira's depression, and Mira realizes that she has a new friend in Jeremy, her year becomes one of many different colors, some happy and others incredibly sad.
Sebby is Mira's unabashedly gay best friend, always bright and energetic to match his blonde hair. Despite his happiness, he hides secrets behind Jeremy and Mira's backs, ones that crack under his life in the foster family system. He doesn't seem to attend school, he pickpockets random things, and his happy-go-lucky attitude doesn't seem to be his real personality.
'Finally [your mother] said, "I know that you're not going to school." "I go sometimes," you said. "The school called me. They said you're not going." "Maybe they were confused." "You need to be going to school, Sebastian. I don't even understand where you are all if you're not at school." You didn't say anything. "I have a feeling that I don't want to know," she said. "I gave you a second chance a year ago. You got yourself into trouble...but I gave you a second chance. Now, if you are getting into trouble again, I can't risk you bringing that back here to this house. I have other children to worry about." "I'm not getting into trouble," you said. "I'm not bringing anything here." "If you're going to continue to live here, you need to be in school. Do you understand me?" You took a deep breath. You needed another cigarette.' (pg. 199)
As he begins to fall back into his old habits and slip away from Jeremy and Mira, Sebby gets into more deep water. Will his friends be able to pull him out, or is Sebby too far gone?
These three friends are about to head into a tumultuous year, participating in magic rituals and embracing the impossibility their lives could hold. But can their lives really get to that point?
The first thing that I immediately liked about this book were the characters. Kate Scelsa has created a diverse and eccentric group of people that liven up the pages of this book. I pretty much liked most of our cast of characters, Jeremy, Mira, Talia (a super smart girl with a big crush on the English teacher who has helped Jeremy in the past) and Peter (the super suave English teacher who's hot with the ladies) were my favorites, while my like for Sebby grew sourer and sourer throughout the book (his personality just got faker and faker as the book went on). All of them were versatile not only in their appearances and behaviors, but in their sexuality as well.
There's another great part to Fans of the Impossible Life: its dealing of sexuality. Not only are there gay parents (which is a rare thing to see in YA fiction) featured in this book, but there are also a multitude of characters with different sexualities. Sebby himself is gay, like I mentioned above, but there's other people in this book that are also different. Jeremy is unsure about where he stands (mostly because of the incident that happens to him in school), and two side characters, Rose and Ali, are lesbians. I appreciate this kind of diversity in the books that I read, and having it be there is awesome.
The last big positive of this book is the writing. Aside from the dialogue writing, which consists primarily of "said" whenever someone says something (like this example below),
There's another great part to Fans of the Impossible Life: its dealing of sexuality. Not only are there gay parents (which is a rare thing to see in YA fiction) featured in this book, but there are also a multitude of characters with different sexualities. Sebby himself is gay, like I mentioned above, but there's other people in this book that are also different. Jeremy is unsure about where he stands (mostly because of the incident that happens to him in school), and two side characters, Rose and Ali, are lesbians. I appreciate this kind of diversity in the books that I read, and having it be there is awesome.
The last big positive of this book is the writing. Aside from the dialogue writing, which consists primarily of "said" whenever someone says something (like this example below),
'"I just had English with Mr. Sprenger." "Everyone calls him Peter," Rose said. "Oh my god, you are so lucky that you have Peter," Molly said. "He is the absolute hottest." "He's also a good teacher," Rose said. "Yeah, I guess," Molly said. "I'm, like, 'What did you say, Peter? I was too busy staring at your face.'"' (pg. 14)
most of the writing in this book resonated with me. The actual conversations people have in this book are done well (even with the constant 'said''s), and the descriptions of substance abuse, questioning of relationships, and depression made me want to give everyone a hug.
'This was how easy it was to fade away, then, with something pulling hard on a string attached to [Mira's] heart. It was a familiar sensation, turning away from the world because it didn't want to be seen. This feeling was an old friend. It had been a while, though, since its last visit. What did it feel like now? It was good to name it. A pressure in her head. A desire to crawl out of her skin. Like some part of her needed to be removed. Some part was poisoned. Liker her body and brain had always been enemies. Like only one would survive this night.' (pg. 99-100)
With all of these positives, you would think that I would have absolutely loved this book. But the last fourth had me scratching off a star due to the climax of the book happening around page 300 and the ending that never really went full circle. Throughout Fans of the Impossible Life, Jeremy constantly worries that he'll lose Mira and Sebby as friends, that he'll begin to rely on them too much, and that they're building each other up to some catastrophic event. When that event finally comes (complete with this weird three person romantic scene that I'd rather not talk about), it feels way too late for it to leave any emotional impact, especially since after this, there's only 60 pages left of the book. I would have preferred it to occur at the 75% mark, since we would have more than 60 pages to solve it.
The final problem with the story is the somewhat open ending. I don't want to give away too much, but one of the friends ends up leaving the others after everything in their life falls apart. Just as the other two friends reconnect by the end, the one who made their exit is still on their own journey. However, their own story hasn't ended yet, leaving for an unresolved conflict with that friend and the others. It makes Fans of the Impossible Life feel incomplete, not getting the closure it should have.
The other conflict with the other two friends didn't really last that long either, and it got resolved within at least 10 pages. Heck, even the resolution about Mira's depression felt unrealistically quick, and the way her parents were finally able to understand that she was suffering from a disorder felt more like an "Aha!" moment than a genuine realization.
Even with those two negatives, I still mostly enjoyed Fans of the Impossible Life. It's a well written (well, excluding the repetition of said) and emotional character exploration, complete with a friendship and surprisingly non-dominant romantic elements (just a heads up: there really isn't a bisexual love triangle). If you're looking for a brightly colored book that contains some hidden darkness, an LGBT book to add versatility to your shelf (like I said before, I'm a huge LGBT fan), or just simply a realistic fiction novel that you haven't heard of before, I give you this.
Fans of the Impossible Life is available from HarperCollins under their Balzer + Bray imprint in hardcover and e-book formats, along with an audiobook that you can get on Audible and physically.
Until next time!
The other conflict with the other two friends didn't really last that long either, and it got resolved within at least 10 pages. Heck, even the resolution about Mira's depression felt unrealistically quick, and the way her parents were finally able to understand that she was suffering from a disorder felt more like an "Aha!" moment than a genuine realization.
Even with those two negatives, I still mostly enjoyed Fans of the Impossible Life. It's a well written (well, excluding the repetition of said) and emotional character exploration, complete with a friendship and surprisingly non-dominant romantic elements (just a heads up: there really isn't a bisexual love triangle). If you're looking for a brightly colored book that contains some hidden darkness, an LGBT book to add versatility to your shelf (like I said before, I'm a huge LGBT fan), or just simply a realistic fiction novel that you haven't heard of before, I give you this.
Fans of the Impossible Life is available from HarperCollins under their Balzer + Bray imprint in hardcover and e-book formats, along with an audiobook that you can get on Audible and physically.
Until next time!
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