In a stunning literary debut, two boys on opposite ends of the world begin an unlikely friendship that will change their lives forever.
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.
A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.
I received an ARC
copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss in exchange for
an honest review.
Ollie
and Moritz start writing letters to each other as recommended by
Ollie's doctor to come to terms with what has happened to me. As the
letters increase, so does their friendship. But these two boys can never
meet. Aside from the fact that Ollie lives in America and Mo lives in
Germany, Ollie is 'allergic' to electricity, while Mo has a pacemaker.
Meeting will kill one of them.
When I first read the synopsis for
this one, I was really interested. I mean, I have never heard of
anything close to this before, and I definitely wanted to read it.
Imagine my delight when I got approved for an advance copy! However, I was seriously disappointed by this book.
The
first half of the book was so horrible that I really had to force
myself to read on. I was really bored because it was all narration. Had it not been for the "twist" mentioned in other people's reviews, I wouldn't have found the strength to read on.
It didn't help that the version that I got on my Kindle got words
without spaces, justlikethisone, and didn't have apostrophes. Ollie's
letters didn't contain quotation marks to indicate conversations, and I
was really just confuse. It was an effort on my part to understand the book and to keep reading.
However,
I am glad that I continued to read on because by the latter half of the
book, it became better. Maybe it became more interesting for me, or
maybe I just got used to the tone of the whole book and how the letters
were written. I actually started enjoying it towards the the 30% of the book.
I
really liked how even though this book has ample amount of romance in
it, it centered on the friendship between Ollie and Mo, and how they
were very encouraging to each other, despite being blunt. Especially
because they were being blunt. Even though they'll never meet,
their friendship is real and true. Props to the author too, for having a
really original and imaginative plot.
On the other hand, I was just confused regarding the kids. What are they, mutants? Aliens? Are those "superpowers" they have, what with Ollie's electromagnetism and Mo's echolocation? In another note not related to this, I felt like Liz was just a plain bitch. I have no idea why, but she just gives that vibe off to me.
There were a lot of things that I disliked about the book, but there were also things that I liked. Although
I didn't really enjoy this book like I thought I would have, I know
that many people enjoyed this, and it's worth giving this book a shot.
