WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW
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| “I'm scared of living my short short life wrong in every possible way. I'm scared I've already made so many mistakes and I don't have enough time to fix them.”- Things I'm Seeing Without You, Peter Bognanni |
Jonah, the first boy she'd told she loved and the first boy to say it back.
Jonah, the boy whose suicide she never saw coming.
Tess continues to write to Jonah, as a way of processing her grief and confusion. But for now she finds solace in perhaps the unlikeliest of ways: by helping her father with his new alternative funeral business, where his biggest client is . . . a prized racehorse?
As Tess’s involvement in her father’s business grows, both find comfort in the clients they serve and in each other. But love, loss, and life are so much more complicated than Tess ever thought. Especially after she receives a message that turns her life upside down.
I cannot believe that this book was written by the same guy that gave us The House of Tomorrow. Just. How.
I guess he realized that well-written, unique, and literary YA novels weren't great money makers so he decided to become another discount John Green. Guess it's unfortunate for him that this was the year Green broke his five year writing hiatus with Turtles All the Way Down coming this very month actually (no, I'm not going to read it because my masochistic tendencies are just that- tendencies).
The main reason why I wanted to read this book was because I stumbled upon it after reading The House of Tomorrow and decided, eh, what the hell. I was initially a little turned off by The Fault in Our Stars comparison, but figured that he would surpass my expectations the same way his debut did. And the funeral home angle. Yes.
Things I'm Seeing Without You is basically your typical YA quirky teen book with a certain falseness to it. Our main character Tess Fowler reminds me of other quirky teenage girl protagonists that are clearly written by male authors, like HazelGraceLancaster or Mary. Iris. Malone. Look okay, many male authors write really great female protagonists, in fact, I think men write teenage girls better then women write teenage guys as a whole, but in this case, it was obvious that Bognanni has no experience with teenage girls other than from books like Mosquitoland.
While it is true that the summary is very... John-Greenish... I wasn't too turned off by it because again, I was going on my prior Bognanni experience with The House of Tomorrow, and that novel may have had a very unusual even quirky setting and premise yet ended up being done very well. It didn't work nearly as well here. Instead, it just came off as being a bit too try-hard, with the Quaker School and the whole constantly talking about pot and just the character of Tess. Also, her online boyfriend was a bit too much like a John Green boyfriend, with the whole calling Tess by her first and last names.
There were a lot of throwaway moments like the actual funerals- I wonder if Bognanni kept changing his mind as to what book he wanted to write and just kept adding to it. In fact, I wished that Bognanni just focused on one thing, because certain parts made me feel like I was reading a book that was crafted from a story told by a little kid- And then they have a funeral for a horse! And then then an old lady hires them for a living funeral! But wait, the old lady dies in a freak accident so it turns into an actual funeral! And then.. and then... That kind of aimlessness that is frustrating to read, not because it's complex but because the author is forced to rely on a lot of contrivances to write his way out of the story arc he decided to abandon.
Also, what is up with this new trope of teenage characters just hopping on a plane without the parents' knowing? I hate it (fuck you Everything Everything for that I guess). It's unrealistic and irresponsible on the part of the teen and just idiotic. It's like a symbol of the impulsive selfishness that makes people hate teenagers. That's a bit dramatic but that's how much I hate this trope.
So is there anything I did like about this book? It's decently written. The meditations on grief were, while cliche and typical for a YA funeral home book or just one on grief in general, decent enough. It had some really great descriptions of Italy. And despite my bitching about the many different plotlines, I did kind of like the realisticness of how not everything ever works out. Likely it was the only realistic thing about the book.
I mean, it was one of the better The Fault in Our Stars knock-offs. I'd put this book in the same place as The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko. I didn't love it, but in comparison to other John Greenish books like Mosquitoland or All the Bright Places I didn't want to throw this book off a cliff. As far as funeral home books go, I'd skip this or at least put this on least priority list. It's not on par with books like The Dead I Know or The Boy in the Black Suit (review coming soon btw). Another disappointing new release.
There were a lot of throwaway moments like the actual funerals- I wonder if Bognanni kept changing his mind as to what book he wanted to write and just kept adding to it. In fact, I wished that Bognanni just focused on one thing, because certain parts made me feel like I was reading a book that was crafted from a story told by a little kid- And then they have a funeral for a horse! And then then an old lady hires them for a living funeral! But wait, the old lady dies in a freak accident so it turns into an actual funeral! And then.. and then... That kind of aimlessness that is frustrating to read, not because it's complex but because the author is forced to rely on a lot of contrivances to write his way out of the story arc he decided to abandon.
Also, what is up with this new trope of teenage characters just hopping on a plane without the parents' knowing? I hate it (fuck you Everything Everything for that I guess). It's unrealistic and irresponsible on the part of the teen and just idiotic. It's like a symbol of the impulsive selfishness that makes people hate teenagers. That's a bit dramatic but that's how much I hate this trope.
So is there anything I did like about this book? It's decently written. The meditations on grief were, while cliche and typical for a YA funeral home book or just one on grief in general, decent enough. It had some really great descriptions of Italy. And despite my bitching about the many different plotlines, I did kind of like the realisticness of how not everything ever works out. Likely it was the only realistic thing about the book.
I mean, it was one of the better The Fault in Our Stars knock-offs. I'd put this book in the same place as The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko. I didn't love it, but in comparison to other John Greenish books like Mosquitoland or All the Bright Places I didn't want to throw this book off a cliff. As far as funeral home books go, I'd skip this or at least put this on least priority list. It's not on par with books like The Dead I Know or The Boy in the Black Suit (review coming soon btw). Another disappointing new release.
5 out of 10
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