AfterEllen.com Book Club discussion

I'm personally entertained that two of the book titles for this month are so similar yet so different--Everything Leads to You versus this one, Far From You. One is so positive sounding, and the other is...not! Which I think goes for the actual plots of the books, as well. This one's a murder mystery that definitely doesn't sound happy but is supposed to be excellent--I've heard that Veronica Mars fans would enjoy it, which I always take to be a good sign--and the main character identifies as bisexual, something pretty rare in YA fiction. (I can only think of one other YA book with bisexual identifying characters.)

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to this one this month, but I'm definitely going to try to read it soon. Have any of you read it? What did you think?

I wasn't very motivated at first because of the dark theme and only started reading it since the pick for this month wasn't out yet. But I was hooked almost instantly. I guess I have a thing for books with timeline jumps.

Some people might dislike the fact that the jumps into the past are not in chronological order. But I thought it was very well done, revealing bit by bit what we needed to know while the drama continues.

I had read about a third of the book on the second day and I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I don't mean in an "I-have-to-figure-out-who-the-murderer-is" kind of way, but about Sophies sometimes tragic life on the whole, especially including her romantic life. And all of a sudden it hit me and I just knew who the murderer was. But the next day revealed that I was totally wrong! I had judged too early in the story. I read the rest of the book in one go.

Yeah, I really liked it and I hope many other people read it, too, so we can chat about it. As a mathematician I feel I've never been very good with words, as a book critic. So I'm hoping to be able to profit from you, maybe bounce some thoughts back and forth or even just read what other people think. (That applies to all books discussed here.)

On a side note: Isn't Reese from "Adaptation" also bisexual?

OK, 1) your review has made me really want to pick it up now! and 2) OMG YES, I don't know why I didn't think about Reese?? When I tried to think of other YA with bisexual main characters, I kept thinking of this other one (by Alex Sanchez), but Adaptation totally skipped my mind. Which is weird because I read it a lot more recently. I wonder why that is? Maybe because Reese was a character who was slowly understanding her own sexuality throughout the story, and I was trying to think of stories where the protagonist identifies right away as, and doesn't shy away from, being bisexual. But still, okay, I've read TWO stories with a bisexual protagonist, and hopefully when I read this one, it'll be three! I'd like that number to eventually get to double digits, though.

1) Well, I hope you won't be disappointed. Sometimes I feel I'm easily impressed. Let me put it this way: "Everything Leads to You" was a nicer read, but didn't give me as much to think about as "Far From You". However, there are some points I see critically, they just didn't mean as much to me concerning the storyline as they might to other readers. I'll be looking for your comment in the future.

2) Yes, I know you were referring to Alex Sanchez's character, I remember the book. He was confronted with the myth of bisexuality not being a real sexuality and bisexuals just not being sure and I liked the way he responded to that.
I wasn't sure if Reese ever referred to herself as being bisexual and thought that maybe because of that she wouldn't count. Maybe that's why you didn't think of her?