Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2016
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
After the unexpected loss of his girlfriend, a teenage boy suffering from delusions is convinced that he can travel through time to save her, in this gripping new novel from New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis.
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 concerned 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 Sofia, a quiet girl with a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. Sofia helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo provides comfort to Sofia, who lost her mother and two sisters at a very young age.
But even the strength of their love isn't enough to help Sofia 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 now it's his job to save her.
Not since Ned Vizzini's It's Kind of a Funny Story has there been such a heartrending depiction of mental illness. In her first contemporary novel, Beth Revis guides readers through the mind of a young man struggling to process his grief as he fights his way through his delusions. As Bo becomes more and more determined to save Sofia, he has to decide whether to face his demons head-on, or succumb to a psychosis that will let him be with the girl he loves.
"Starred Review. A story that's both heartbreaking and hopeful." - Publishers Weekly
"A gripping exploration of a young man's struggle with delusions and grief." - Booklist
"A page-turning psychological thriller. Ages 14+" - Kirkus
"A compelling peek into the darkest corners of mental illness." - School Library Journal
"YA's answer to Shutter Island." - The Horn Book
"A heartrending, beautifully complex look at mental illness, life, and loss. I tore through the pages, and, days later, this story still has a hold on me." - Alexandra Bracken, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Darkest Minds series and Passenger
This information about A World Without You was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Beth Revis grew up in the Appalachian mountains with a cemetery in her backyard, but all the ghost stories she invented ended up with robots or unicorns. She still prefers her stories to have some sort of weird angle to them; even when she's writing a contemporary novel like A World Without You, she can't help but add some unexpected twists. Her other books, the Across the Universe trilogy, are New York Times bestsellers and have been translated into more than twenty languages. Beth lives in a house full of boys - her husband, son, and two massive dogs - and she forces them all to watch reruns of Firefly and Doctor Who in between planning trips to see the world.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
