Far From You

nerd teacher [books] reviewed Far From You by Tess Sharpe

A special book for me.

5 stars

I love this book probably more than I can explain. I've had the chance, courtesy of my students' decisions, to teach this novel in class and to see how its messages impact my students. It's a special book for me, and it's one that I've had a lot of arguments with school administrations over.

The protagonist is bisexual and a rehabilitating drug addict, someone who is later accused of relapsing even though they never did. It describes her relationship with a girl she loved; it shows the support she receives from various people as she explores who she is and opens up to the people around her. It's also a mystery.

It's one of the few books where I've seen drug addiction handled with the care it deserved, where the person wasn't made a villain for it.

patchworkbunny reviewed Far from You by Tess Sharpe

Review of 'Far from You' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Far From You follows Sophie who has become addicted to prescription medication following a car crash that left her in constant pain. Her life is wrapped up with Mina and Trev, brother and sister, the two people she loves most in the world.

Sophie witnesses the murder of Mina, the girl she loves. She doesn't have time to grieve or get answers, because drugs are planted on her at the crime scene. Despite having got clean, everyone assumes the worst, that is was a drug deal gone bad, and Sophie is whisked off to rehab.

Once she's free, she becomes determined to find out the truth and get justice for Mina. The strongest part of this book is the relationship between Sophie and Mina. It's pretty obvious early on that it was more than friendship but the full context is revealed through flashbacks. Mina resists the relationship, pushes Sophie away …

Far From You follows Sophie who has become addicted to prescription medication following a car crash that left her in constant pain. Her life is wrapped up with Mina and Trev, brother and sister, the two people she loves most in the world.

Sophie witnesses the murder of Mina, the girl she loves. She doesn't have time to grieve or get answers, because drugs are planted on her at the crime scene. Despite having got clean, everyone assumes the worst, that is was a drug deal gone bad, and Sophie is whisked off to rehab.

Once she's free, she becomes determined to find out the truth and get justice for Mina. The strongest part of this book is the relationship between Sophie and Mina. It's pretty obvious early on that it was more than friendship but the full context is revealed through flashbacks. Mina resists the relationship, pushes Sophie away and tries to hurt her.

It's so sad that the two girls never got that time together where they could just be. It's implied that Mina's family wouldn't be OK with her being a lesbian, that she wasn't brought up to be OK with it, so she dates guys she doesn't care about instead.

The narrative jumps around in time a lot. I think you need to establish the timeline somehow before doing this as I couldn't keep up to start with. There is a lot packed in; the interconnecting relationships, Sophie's injury and drug addiction, the murder investigation.

I picked this up for the character with chronic pain square of Diversity Bingo. I didn't feel it was particularly insightful about living with constant pain and there were points it was easy to forget Sophie was suffering. I would have liked it to explore the impact of her having to give up her pain medication because of her addiction.

mothlight

rated it

February 8

rhashayla

rated it

Oct. 16, 2014

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