Review: Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas

Title: Because You'll Never Meet Me
Author: Leah Thomas
Genre: Contemporary, Sci-Fi, Young Adult
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Publication date: July 2nd 2015
Pages: 344
Source: Netgalley






In a stunning literary debut, two boys on opposite ends of the world begin an unlikely frienship 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 out 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.

Goodreads

Because You’ll Never Meet Me grabbed my attention because it dealt with a weird topic. Ollie has a rare allergy. He has violent reactions to anything electricity. Because of this he lives in a remote cabin with only his mother. Moritz relies on his pacemaker to keep alive. Because of this the two of them will never be able to meet. Against all odds they become close friends through their brief correspondence. Together they learn more about themselves, about the world and about one another.

Because You’ll Never Meet Me was a very sweet book. It’s a book about friendship and forgiveness. 

Both Ollie’s and Moritz’ their lives are limited because of their conditions. At first it might have 
seemed like that the two boys had almost nothing in common. One of them was the happy one, while the other only saw the negative in all things. But nothing is as it seems. They both blossom into two young men when their correspondence continues.

The book was interesting since it is told through the letters Ollie and Moritz exchanged. I really appreciated that the other gave the two characters very distinct voices. Moritz is the unhappy German boy, who thinks that nothing in his life is worth it. Ollie on the other end is the American boy who lives isolated in the woods. He has been missing out on a lot things his entire life but he does not seem to mind the simplicity of his life. Yet when they strike up their correspondence they find out that there is so much more about the other one that one might see at first. They learn how to let go of the past and how to embrace the future.

What I did not expect when I started this book was that the book would take a slightly sci-fi turn. I was not prepared for this at all and I am still not too sure what I have to think of it. I believe that I would have liked this book a lot more if the book had been more “normal”. The lab and the kids that came from it were a bit over the top for me at times. I had a hard time imagining it all while the rest of the book felt so normal. Because besides this the book also deals with real life problems that I lot of teenagers have to deal with like bullying and first time love.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. But at time the pace of it was a bit too slow for me and not enough happened in it to keep me on the edge of my seat the entire time. And like I mentioned before the abnormalities in this book were a bit too much for me at times. But I am sure that there are many other readers out there who will enjoy this book immensely.  

El