#GoodreadsGiveaway ( )

A subject that rings all to true, a high school shooting in a west texas school and the aftermath that effects not only those involved but also the local community.
And as for the why?
You will have to read to the end to find out.
A beautifully written story of sorrow, love and hope that will certainly cause a lot of pause for thought.
( )

an excellent book, the best I've read in a long, long time. A story about a horrific event, a family and the aftermath that engulfed everyone. I highly recommend this book. ( )

‘It’s not a story, Charlie. It’s our lives. This is real life.’

In this wonderful, heartbreaking novel the central focus is Oliver Loving, a shy, awkward, 17-year-old who is caught up in a school shooting and now lies in a persistent vegetative state in an assisted care facility. This event, in a small town called Bliss in the borderlands of Texas, which also cost the lives of 3 students and a teacher, hangs over the whole story as it hangs over the whole town and its people. The shooter, a young man called Hector Espina, killed himself after the event, and so the question of ‘why’ pervades the narrative. The setting is appropriate too, as Block’s characters – especially Oliver himself – live an existence on the edge, somewhere between two lives, the before and after.

Each of the main characters in the book are themselves caught in their own form of prison, trapped in a life they no longer enjoy or trapped in the guilt they feel for the events of that fateful night: Oliver’s parents, Eve and Jed, whose marriage falls apart as they struggle to deal with Oliver’s situation in their own way; Oliver’s younger brother Charlie, who moves away to New York and lives the life of a failed writer mired in debt to his landlord; Rebekkah Sterling, the object of Oliver’s unrequited love at high school; and Manuel Paz, the local police officer who remains obsessed with the shooting.

The narrative switches between each of these characters in turn, giving us insights in to the lives of these damaged people. Startlingly, when the focus is on Oliver himself, the narrative switches to the second person (‘Your name is Oliver Loving’). This is a notoriously tricky literary device, but I think it works here for Block as it gives an immediacy to our relationship with Oliver. Different perspectives, different stories. As the book progresses we gradually learn more about the events of November 15th, but essentially and crucially there is never an absolute answer. Eve’s mantra of ‘there is no why’ is ultimately the only truth: it was just ‘randomness and chaos’ that led to her son and her family being involved in this legend or story. Charlie’s failed attempts to write Oliver’s story, using Oliver’s journal and poems, becomes a metaphor for our continual struggle to find meaning, and the novel’s frequent allusions to the stars and space, the vastness of time, simply places the story in this context.

Block’s writing is wonderfully descriptive, often lyrical and poetic. I was engaged by the characters who were believable in their frailties, and the shadow of Oliver haunts the book to the end. The pacing is slower than some might enjoy, but it suits the subject matter and the characters’ struggle to come to terms with letting Oliver go. There are some weighty issues at play in the book: what does it mean to be alive? How can we be sure if someone trapped in this state has any consciousness? But the book never lectures; Block’s writing is subtle, moving and beautiful. The end of the book, which I won’t spoil here, is suitably ambiguous in its dealing with the family’s dilemma of keeping Oliver alive or letting him go. There is a ‘yes’, an affirmation, but what does it actually mean?

I loved the book – it is deeply moving, profoundly beautiful and will leave you thinking about big issues long after you reach the end. Oh, and it will probably make you cry. I thoroughly recommend it, this is a great book and I definitely think it deserves 5 stars. ( )

11/27/2017
2.5 stars, RTC.

01/16/2018
(This review can also be found on my blog.)

Spoiler-free Review of an ARC provided by the publisher as part of a giveaway.

Let me start off by saying: this is not a bad book. But I put off writing this review for over a month because I just didn’t like it at all. There are people out there who will probably love this book. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t one of them.

But you were a boy who had developed a nearly anaphylactic aversion to prolonged eye contact, and you looked away, gaped awkwardly up at the sky: a poor decision.

The Good: Stefan Merrill Block is an incredible writer. The writing in this book is just so lyrical, so beautiful. I had to stop to reread passages several times because they struck me just so. There’s even a queer character! Nice!

The tragedy of love, you had learned from ten years spent looking up at your mother, is that it is only possible to love perfectly a person who is lost to you[…]

Unfortunately, everything felt far too scattered for me. The book tried to cover a plethora of topics and in doing so, didn’t really pay justice to any of them. I didn’t find myself connecting to any of the characters, they all felt too flawed, in a way. Rebekkah felt like a cardboard cutout of a teenage girl. Oliver didn’t actually care about any of the bad things happening to her as long as he got to be the white knight that saved her. I also had an issue with the way assault victims were portrayed that I can’t really get into without spoiling anything.

So, for me, there was just too much bad to outweigh the good. If it sounds like something that would interest you, I think it’s worth a shot! But if you don’t find yourself enjoying it, I think it’s also worth DNFing. ( )