Rebecca Stead: When you reach me (2010, Thorndike Press)
English language
Published Sept. 29, 2010 by Thorndike Press.
As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1970s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.
The moment it all comes together? Chef's kiss. Beautiful.
This was so perfectly comfortable. I read it in one sitting, when I was post-call from a shift at work and it was the perfect book for my semi-sleep deprived brain to read while curled up on the couch.
There are some books that are terrific because they're profound, or the writing is beautiful or the plot is breathtaking. This isn't one of those books. This book is terrific because it's essentially the platonic ideal of a young adult speculative fiction novel. The writing is approachable by the young reader, tight with nothing extra. The story is both fun and underlined by a coming of age theme. None of it is new, but Stead does it so perfectly and with her own witty twist that I didn't really mind. Her depiction of the transformation from mean middle schooler into young adult with insight into human imperfections could have easily veered …
This was so perfectly comfortable. I read it in one sitting, when I was post-call from a shift at work and it was the perfect book for my semi-sleep deprived brain to read while curled up on the couch.
There are some books that are terrific because they're profound, or the writing is beautiful or the plot is breathtaking. This isn't one of those books. This book is terrific because it's essentially the platonic ideal of a young adult speculative fiction novel. The writing is approachable by the young reader, tight with nothing extra. The story is both fun and underlined by a coming of age theme. None of it is new, but Stead does it so perfectly and with her own witty twist that I didn't really mind. Her depiction of the transformation from mean middle schooler into young adult with insight into human imperfections could have easily veered into moralizing, but it was so on the nose with the depiction that one can't really complain.
Pure fun.
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down. The main character Miranda is a work of genius. I felt like I knew her and recognized little bits of myself in her. The story is heartbreaking yet beautiful and hopeful.
