Corinne DuyvisReseñas

This book was exciting and sad and felt real despite being about the aftermath of a comet hitting the earth. While I do recognize how other reviewers felt the diversity boxes just kept getting checked off, the reality is that the author did a beautiful job of pulling the story together and making those exact details a part of the overall experience.

Full review on my blog

489

Full Review on my blog!

It took me a little while to get into this, but once the plot started picking up, I was engaged. Otherbound is a mixture of contemporary and fantasy, with amazing world building.

This book has two very diverse protagonists who have to deal with a lot of hardships in their lives. They are connected in some inconceivable way, which is very disruptive for their lives. They want nothing more but to be rid of this link. But when they try to do it, something goes wrong.

This book is engaging and fresh and I really liked it! I highly recommend it!

Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Facebook

2.5 Stars

I had to stop reading this one at less than a third in, because I was bored with the plot and it didn't seem to be getting better. It's well-written otherwise. But I've read three other novels with autistic protagonists that I enjoyed far more.

If you take an excellent premise, add well-developed characters, and throw in a few surprises, you'll get an unusual book that is memorable and thought-provoking when written by a talented author. That's what happened with Otherbound. I stayed up late reading it and thought about it each day between readings. Highly recommended.

Oh fuck yes. I was about to give up on YA entirely and then I read this (and Shadowshaper) and I'm all in again. Very smart and very surprising.

I enjoyed my experience reading this book, especially how diverse the characters were. I wanted to come back to it throughout, but the ending didn't pay off for me. I didn't buy the supposed romance between Cilla and Amara; it seemed to exist solely to make the plot move the way it did in the end rather than on its own merits. The problematic aspects of the power dynamic between them weren't explored enough either. The way the magic worked confused me. The ending didn't wrap things up to my satisfaction. I did especially like Nolan's relationship with his sister.

Nolan has a seizure disorder, which causes him to be pulled into another world, where he lives life as Amara, a girl with an exciting and important destiny.

From March:

Irony, kind of: I go out of my way to read the UIUC YA bookclub pick for last month – OTHERBOUND by Corinne Duyvis – going so far as to say on Facebook I’m going, only to find myself stuck in my room during meeting time because I stupidly made a dental appointment the same day several hours before bookclub and have you ever spoke coherently and thoughtfully about anything after both a root canal and a tooth extraction? I didn’t think so. Thus, I was left to wallow in my OTHERBOUND thoughts, underheard, until now.

My full thoughts, now at my blog

Holy pants, what a fabulous book. I can't actually think of a way to describe it without spoiling it in some manner, but a damn fine read, and easily my favorite book on the year.

Interesting premise, identical Hazels from different dimensions, but too much action without much reflection. Liked On the Edge of Gone, this one not so much.½

-- Recommended by Sam --

● everytime the guy (???) blinks he sees the fantasy world that the girl (???) is in
● mind intrusion
● disability and lgbtq rep

There are some serious themes in this book, from violent abuse to dealing with a magically caused disability to political persecution, but the characters and story are so well drawn that the book doesn't feel mired in issues. Fascinating world building and realistic characters. I particularly loved Nolan's family.

3 -3.5 star rating.

I wanted to love this more. I really enjoyed the first half, it has a sense of urgency which is very fitting for the apocalyptic setting, and it's great at building anxiety in the reader which was a hell of a lot of fun to experience while reading this kind of book. Unfortunately the second half was a bit of a let down (though I did appreciate where it was trying to go), but I really liked the autism & trans rep.

I love the research done

Overdrive ebook from the Sora Reads collection. Kind of weird reading about the end of the world while we are stuck in lockdown due to COVID-19. This is the story of Denise, a teenage girl with Autism who is coping with a drug addicted mother and a transgender brother while preparing for an asteroid to strike the Earth and possibly end life as we know it. The book is set in Amsterdam which means that after the Asteroid does strike there is a tsunami and, of course, all the dykes break which flood the towns and the underground shelters. But I digress..

On their way to the shelter prior to the asteroid's impact, Denise and her mother stumble upon one of the last space ships that are due to take off in case Earth becomes inhabitable. Here, Denise's unique view of life and situations proves valuable and they are offered a berth on the ship. Then her mother blows it all away with her drug taking. Will Denise find her lost sister, make friends, rectify her mother's mistakes and finally decide whether she wants to stay on the damaged Earth or leave on the space ship.
Fascinating complex book with many levels . Denise's view of the world through autistic eyes is, I believe , very authentic. The complexities of leaving people behind on a doomed planet are also raised very well - who goes and who is left behind - the old, the disabled , the fertile?
Lots of twists and turns and a very thought provoking read.½

A high school boy is pulled into the mind of a similar-aged girl on another planet. Amara's life is lived on the run, servant to a princess whose family is been killed in a revolution. Nolan figures out more about how he has gotten snared, and the implications for Amara (she resents the intrusion, but also is able to heal fatal injuries very rapidly), but still has to deal with his life in his own world, where his parents try every treatment they can think of for his "seizures/hallucinations". As events come to a head in Amara's world, Amara/Nolan meet other "travelers" and their lives are threatened.
heard on audiobook, excellent recording.½

An incoherent, sloppy mess of a book. Not sure why I finished this one but I did.

Denise is a citizen of the Netherlands. Her mom is a drug addict; her sister Iris is busy organizing festivals; her father is back in his native Suriname; and a comet is coming to end the world. When her mother delays leaving for temporary shelter in a vain attempt to join up with Iris, they end up with a completely different option—a generation ship, the last one on the planet. But it’s not clear they can stay, given her mother’s addiction, Denise’s autism, and Denise’s commitment to finding Iris. It’s good end-of-the-world YA, full of frustration and tragedy and hope.½

I heard this on audio, read by Mare Trevathan who did an excellent job getting accents and emotion appropriately, especially when Denise is getting anxious and keeps repeating.
The plot about how people cope in the immediate days surrounding comet impact is interesting and the theme of how an autistic teen copes is well interwoven. As I approached the end of the book I became aware of another subtle theme: acceptance (or lack thereof by the greater population) of transgender & differently abled. The question is also raised about whether drug addictions are a choice or an illness, tho mostly we just see how their mother's addiction has affected Denise & Iris who have to take care of her.
One memorable quote is Else telling Denise why she is a good worker (& not just being patronizing): great at organizing, attention to detail, ability to carry thru to finish a task...
An excellent book & one I plan to purchase to share with some queer nieces.

PopSugar '16 #29--A dystopian novel
4.5? I usually reserve 5 stars for books I will read again. While this book was very good, I doubt I'll read it again.

On the surface, this book is one of many popular apocalyptic novels. I like those books. I've read tons of them. End of the world? Survival Stories? There are a bit like catnip to me.

This one stands out from the pack in many ways. While there are several friendships and at least one sort of flirty/friendly/maybe something more-ship, this doesn't contain a romance (WHAT? It totally works. Trust me.) The book is set in The Netherlands, the author's home country. At first I thought maybe the book was translated from the dutch because something seemed stilted or a little off about the way it read. Not enough to detract from the book, it just seemed slightly different. The main character and narrarator has autism (Oh. Ohhhhhhh.), her sister is transgender (in the near future, when this is somewhat more normalized than it is now), her mother is addicted to ketamine. When she meets new people after The Event, they are from all sorts of religions, nationalities, colors, etc. This was never pointed out in any obvious way and it wasn't like the author was going down a checklist--she was simply writing a world that reflects our own. Sad that this is so unusual.

Another reviewer said this is more of a case study and that nothing really HAPPENS in the book. I'd like to poke back at that a little bit. Duyvis does a great job of building tension. I kept expecting something REALLY TERRIBLE to happen. But when bad things did happen, the book just kept going, just like people surviving have to keep going.

I have a lot I could say about how brilliant's Duyvis writes her narrator. She's amazing. Her voice rings true, her actions, too. She's learned to navigate the world, but it's so difficult for her; in some ways the end of the world is easier for her because she has things to DO and her voice is heard, but it's also so very hard--many of the things she uses to calm herself (carefully chosen food, clothes, bedding) are not longer an option.

I immensely enjoyed this book. I might need to come back and change the review to 5 stars.

Review also posted on my blog: https://bennilovesbooks.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/review-on-the-edge-of-gone-by-c...

This book has content warnings for death, ableism, drug abuse, parental neglect, racism, natural disaster, near-drowning, and animal death (humane euthanization).

I had some pretty mixed feelings about this book but overall I really liked it. I loved Denise as a character — she’s autistic, biracial, and incredibly fierce. She more or less has had to take care of herself because her dad is gone and her mom doesn’t take care of her, so when she has to fight for her survival her instincts take over and she does whatever she can to protect herself and her mom, and to find her sister. Denise was a fantastic character, and I really enjoyed seeing through her eyes in this story.

My largest issue with this book was the pacing — I loved the story, but the pacing in the middle was rather uneven and often slow. This isn’t at all a short book, so having to slog through the middle of the book really made it drag for me, and this wasn’t very pleasant. I felt like the middle of the book could have been trimmed more without losing the heart of the story and the book would have been better off with this. I didn’t feel like this hurt the book enough to make me not enjoy it, but it certainly made it a bit harder to read.

I really felt that this book was worth reading — the premise was interesting, the cast was dynamic, and additionally the book did an excellent job of discussing stereotypes of autistic people through the eyes of an autistic character. It was, however, a bit too long and would have been more enjoyable if it were a bit shorter. I recommend it, but you may want to break this one up into several sittings more than usual because the middle can be challenging to get through.

Final rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this, and I really enjoyed having a main character who has autism, and the themes that this novel explored, but there was something that just kept me from enjoying this fully. I appreciated the discussion on who "deserves" to be on a generation ship, who is "useful," and how mental health is explored as well. The author did a great job writing this in an engaging way, and the writing was easy to read and follow along. I found Denise's character hard to sympathize with sometimes, but I think it was more of an understanding thing - not being a person with autism, it was hard to connect with Denise and understand her feelings, and what she was going through. Throughout the novel, Duyvis did do a great job of helping us understand her, as well as giving a new perspective I haven't read from before. I ended up really liking Denise and reading about her. The plot felt a little contrived at times, adding in some plot points just to cause more drama, but overall I liked it. The side characters felt like they needed some more development as well, but they still felt quite fleshed out, and like real people.

Overall, I liked the story, and ended up really liking the main character. The writing was well done and I definitely want to read more from this author.