Before I go into this review, I have to say this. I recommend going into this book completely blind, without knowing anything about it. But if you are like me and can't do that, keep reading for my review.
Title: A World Without You
Author: Beth Revis
Publisher: Razorbill
Format: Hardback
Publication Date: July 16th, 2016
What if finding her means losing himself?
Seventeen-year-old
Bo has always had delusions that he can travel through time. When he
was ten, Bo claimed to have witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg,
and at fifteen, he found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified
by the bodies surrounding him. So when his worried parents send him to a
school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the truth: that he’s
actually attending Berkshire Academy, a school for kids who, like Bo,
have “superpowers.”
At Berkshire, Bo falls in love with SofÃa, a
quiet girl with a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. SofÃa
helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo provides
comfort to SofÃa, who lost her mother and two sisters at a very young
age.
But even the strength of their love isn’t enough to help
SofÃa escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide, Bo is
convinced that she’s not actually dead. He believes that she’s stuck
somewhere in time—that he somehow left her in the past, and that now
it’s his job to save her. And as Bo becomes more and more determined to
save SofÃa, he must decide whether to face his demons head-on or succumb
to a psychosis that will let him be with the girl he loves.
Bo, a time traveler, has lost his girlfriend somewhere in the past and everyone in his present thinks she is dead. He attends a school for special kids, kids with powers. Though, their powers don't really help a lot and nobody other than them seem to know they have them. We follow Bo and Pheobe, his sister, and hear two different versions of the same place. Bo thinks he has a super power that lets him time travel and that he is at the school so he can help control it. Phoebe knows that Bo is at a school for trouble teens. Bo thinks his girlfriend got lost in the past because he took her back to 1692. Phoebe attended the memorial and read the article about how Sofia committed suicide. Is Bo seeing reality? Is Phoebe just not listening?
I can already tell you know this will be my favorite book of that year. I loved this book so much. The character Bo was great. Inside his head you, the reader, start to wonder if it is all real. Heck, I ended the book not knowing if he could really travel through time or not. Because that last page leaves you wondering. And then we get to see it through his sister's eyes and how violent Bo had been and how scared she was. When we see through Bo's eyes you wouldn't think he could be violent.
The other characters were amazing as well. I can't even say I have a favorite. I loved Harold, and if you read the book you are probably wondering how I liked this character. Because, you see, Harold talks to ghosts. Which, in reality, he hears voices and talks about the darkness more than once. I also loved Ryan. Ryan wasn't a nice person and him as a person isn't what I liked. I liked his disorder and how this book gave me a chance to see it. I was a psychology major for a little bit and this kind of stuff draws me in. I also loved the Doctor. Part of me would really like a short story or novella through his POV. At first we see him as the leader, teaching them how to control their powers, because he too, has one. He can heal himself. But as we see more and more, you see that he really cares and is trying to help these kids. I am sorry, I am rambling, but I have another paragraph of likes and I swear I am done.
The whole thing was just written beautifully and I expected nothing less from Beth Revis. I loved Across the Universe and this one didn't disappoint one bit. Reading some other reviews I see people complaining about this not being a sci-fy book. In a way, I disagree. Bo takes you with him as he travels back in time, weather it be in his head or read, it is real to him and for that time the reader. And through his POV we get to see the other classmates powers as well. A girl goes invisable, another girl can start fire, Ryan can levitate things, Harold can talk to the dead, and Bo can time travel. So in that sense, yes it is sci-fy.
Overall I gave this book a 5/5 stars. Again, I loved this book so much. I would recommend this to anyone that likes YA and is interested in mental disorders. Heck, I would recommended it even if you don't.
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