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reviews_and_ramblings ([personal profile] reviews_and_ramblings) wrote2021-11-06 10:01 am

2020-2021 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: Take Me With You When You Go

Take Me With You When You Go by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven

This modern-day epistolary novel captures the terror, rage, and despair of children who face emotional and physical abuse at home. It's a compelling read, with unexpected plot twists that are organic to the action as it develops and not just sleight-of-hand. We care about Bea and her brother Ezra, and we participate in their emotions. It's a page-turner that I read at one sitting. I struggled when deciding how to score this book. It lacks verisimilitude. Ezra and Bea speak in nearly the same voices, and they are not the voices of fourteen- and eighteen-year-old people. The length of the letters and the language they use are not true-to-life. But if a book keeps you on the edge of your seat, surprises you, and delights with its language, then I cannot deny it top marks.

https://amzn.to/3EPiAmf