First off I should say that this book is written for teens not grown ups so a teenager may very well like this book for all the reasons I don't.I started reading this because she is a Canadian author and the cover is freakin' cool. Hello, fly girl and the CN Tower? Amazing. It took me until page 6 to realize the book is not written from the perspective of the girl, but some boy and that is actually where I have stopped. Besides not getting whose POV the story was from I find the writing style di...

The language and writing style was impossible for me to follow. I had to go back numerous times and re-read passages. The book is short, but the time it took to try and decipher what the author was actually talking about was entirely too time consuming. I couldn't get attached to the characters and I didn't care for the plot at all. The descriptions of the characters/monsters were too vague for me to even try to picture them in my mind, the dialogues were packed full of nonsensical words and dia...

I should start out by saying that I can't write very good reviews for books I don't like. It's not that I don't know what I don't like about them, because I do; I simply cannot bring myself to put down a work of art that an author has worked for so long and hard upon. That being said, Above is a perfect example of why I became so dubious about dystopian novels. Unfortunately, I picked up Above with none of my usual qualms, probably because the last few dystopian novels I read had been utterly re...

*sigh*I was really hoping to love this book since it is the first print ARC I received directly from a publisher. Unfortunately, it's just not for me. At page 10 I knew we weren't going to get along and I was right. Damn, sometimes I hate being right. The writing style is way to choppy and hard to keep up with. I felt like I was concentrating entirely too hard while reading. That is a problem. So, I put the book down thinking Above and I just needed our individual space. Whenever I walked past m...

This book.OMFG it is beautiful and I am sitting here sniffling and my fingers are shaking.Book of the year so far. Fucking amazing.Actual review to come when I get my thoughts straight.

I have no idea why I want to have this book. I didn't even read the blurb. I guess the cover did it for me.. *ashamed*

Oh, I did not like the way this book was written. At all. It's weird but I actually tend to like it when authors write their novels in strange dialects, I think it adds a certain uniqueness and personality to the characters, for example, in Blood Red Road. However, the use of it in Above was teeth-grindingly annoying for me. The sentences became disjointed and simplistic, it felt like a book for a much younger audience at times because of this. Also, I felt absolutely zero connection with th

Matthew was born in Safe, deep under the city Above; it's all he's ever known. Safe, his mother who died when he was three - she had gills in her neck; his father who had lion's feet - he went up Above and never returned when Matthew was ten; and the forty-odd other misfits escaping the whitecoats Above. Some, like Matthew, can Pass, can look Normal and go Above for supplies. (His Curse hides under his clothes.) Others, like one of the five founders, Atticus, are obviously Freak: crab's claws in...

I really, really, really wanted to like this book. Why?A) It has a beautiful cover (yes, I can be shallow)B) I shelled out money for the hardcover, looks so pretty on my shelfC) Canadian authorD) Toronto is on the cover. I mean, heck I hate TO most of the time (but I’m from Vancouver so it’s my right) but when was the last time a Canadian city was on a YA cover? This was supposed to do me proud, y’allE) It sounded interestingF) Some of the prose was really gorgeousI really, really, really didn’t...

I can't explained exactly how I feel other than borrowing Giselle's quote "I still don't know what's happening. Someone played Mad Lib with my copy and I'm not impressed!" This had some serious Mad Lib issues. I can't remember the last book I picked up and didn't actually finish reading. It was probably years and years ago but I just could not get through this book!! I'm one of those people who ALWAYS has to finish a book, no matter how bad I think it is, but this one was too painful. Its really...

Above is a deeply human tale. Bobet takes human problems, human hates, human sadnesses and disappointments, and human hopes, and wraps them up in a jarringly sparse, backwards prose about an underground community of Freaks, who wish for nothing more than to be left alone. Above is a challenge, evidenced by the numerous reviewers who've abandoned ship before they ever set sail. Which is a shame, because while this may be categorized under paranormal and science fiction, it's really no more than a...

Gosh. I understand that it was meant to be all Matthew's POV and everything...but it didn't make sense. Sorry Leah! My favourite line to have a mental image of: "'His eyes glow dim-shot amber - not bright, so he's not mad then, just annoyed and looking to be mad. The glow's enough to light up the tapestry on my door." My favourite 'aww' line: Ariel: "I like the sky. I need it."Matthew: "I'd be your sky."A few of my reactions to this book: The reason I'm so upset is, truthfully,

This is a beautiful, sad story.Underneath the world is a place called Safe, where anyone Sick or Freak or Beast is given Sanctuary. Matthew, the Teller, was born there. It is his duty to collect the tales of Safe so that they can be recorded for future generations.And then, on Sanctuary Night, the unthinkable happens. Suddenly Matthew finds himself in Above with a ragtag collection of refugees from Safe. He must use all the skills he has--for Telling, for Passing, and for loving Safe--to help re...

That's it I give up. Page 204 and I still don't know what's happening. Someone played Mad Lib with my copy and I'm not impressed!It's written like the protagonist never learned to speak properly and although it worked for me in Blood Red Road, It's really confusing in this. Random words are capitalized and sometimes he means a person, other times a thing. But I never keep up on which is which. It's all showing, not telling/explaining and with the awkward writing style I'm just not following.*I w...

Breathtaking. That is the best word I can think of to sum up Above. I find it extremely hard to believe that this is Leah's debut novel, it's just so well done that it seems like she has written countless novels before this one. It's honestly hard for me to figure out where I want to begin with in regard to the review, because there is so much about this book that just screams amazing.It's so hard to describe the writing in this book, it's very different than anything I have ever read before. It...

Yes, I am CURRENTLY reading this. I won a copy at Leah's reading at Readercon. So far, so good...

On to the examples:But tonight it’s not the half I need, because there’s Atticus, spindly crab arms folded ’cross his chest, waiting outside my door. His eyes glow dim-shot amber — not bright, so he’s not mad then, just annoyed and looking to be mad. “Teller,” he says, calling me so instead of Matthew to say it clear: that I owe him my life, the food in my belly, the tin roof and plank walls and tapestry-carved door of my home. My Sanctuary. “She’s your responsibility. And you’re responsible to

This gets the usual "I edited this, I'm biased" caveat. And with that said: OH MY WORD this book is incredible. It is gorgeously imagined -- the story of an underground community where a man with electricity in his fingertips or a girl who can shapeshift into a bee can hide away, and what happens when those people are forced into the world, our world, Above. It is even more gorgeously written, with certain phrases used at certain times that will crack your heart wide open (especially in the cent...

Wow....one of the most amazing books I have EVER read, with gorgeous mystical, lyrical writing, where every single sentence is a secret dying to be unlocked, and every paragraph is a clue to help solve the overall heart-pounding mystery. It had me breathless, and teary-eyed, and in complete and total awe. Leah Bobet is a master storyteller, and I will never forget the first time reading this book. Dear sweet Jesus, I wish I had read it years ago. That, or written it myself :) 5 stars, 1000 if I

Decided not to read based on the information about the genderqueer & intersex rep in this review: http://diceytillerman.livejournal.com...Also because I found out that (view spoiler)[ not only is the genderqueerness & intersex identity of the character treated as a secret, not only are they misgendered thru so much of the book, not only do they turn out to be a villain in the book, but they are killed for it. (hide spoiler)] This is not the genderqueer & intersex rep anyone needs, especially ge...