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Your next favorite book
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The author of The Gravity of Us crafts another heartfelt coming-of-age story about finding the people who become your home--perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli.
Marty arrives in London with nothing but his oboe and some savings from his summer job, but he's excited to start his new life--where he's no longer the closeted, shy kid who slips under the radar and is free to explore his sexuality without his parents' disapproval.
From the outside, Marty's life looks like a perfect fantasy: in the span of a few weeks, he's made new friends, he's getting closer with his first ever boyfriend, and he's even traveling around Europe. But Marty knows he can't keep up the facade. He hasn't spoken to his parents since he arrived, he's tearing through his meager savings, his homesickness and anxiety are getting worse and worse, and he hasn't even come close to landing the job of his dreams. Will Marty be able to find a place that feels like home?
"Stamper piles problems on Marty both in London and at home, but the book's real strength is Marty's complexity: even when his anxiety flares up, he finds ways to maintain his mental health and cope with the things that threaten his dreams." - Publishers Weekly
"Stamper does a beautiful job with his characters and their intricate relationships." - Booklist
"Anxious and introspective teens will recognize themselves in Marty, whether they too share specific life attributes, such as sexual orientation or musicality. Recommended." - School Library Journal
"Brilliant, vital, and best of all: brave. As Far As You'll Take Me swells with big-hearted emotion, bold dynamics, and genuine wit. A truly masterful composition that I will be thinking about long after the final notes fade." - Ryan La Sala, author of Reverie and Be Dazzled
"As Far As You'll Take Me is a beautiful tribute to every queer kid who's ever had to leave their home in order to find one." - Leah Johnson, bestselling author of You Should See Me in a Crown
"Phil Stamper has written a heartfelt, triumphant novel about the courage it takes to step out of your comfort zone and the power in finding a family of friends who let you shine. Beautifully evoking the breathlessness of first love and the anguish of first loss, readers will be captivated by every swell in Marty's song." - Maulik Pancholy, Stonewall Honor-winning author of The Best at It
"An honest, affecting novel about the lengths we must travel to find ourselves, and an ode to the people who sustain us along the way." - Andrew Eliopulos, author of The Fascinators
This information about As Far As You'll Take Me 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.
Phil Stamper is the author of The Gravity of Us. He grew up in a rural village near Dayton, Ohio. He has a B.A. in Music and an M.A. in Publishing with Creative Writing. And, unsurprisingly, a lot of student debt. He works for a major book publisher in New York City and lives in Brooklyn with his husband and their dog.
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