On My Bookshelf: Dying To Know You by Aidan Chambers

I got this book: I got an ARC copy from the publisher in exchange for this review.


My Rating: 5/5 stars

Expected Publication Date: April 1st 2012

Summary: In Dying to Know You, award-winning author Aidan Chambers has created an indelible portrait of a young man discovering his own voice in the world, and has constructed a love story that is as much about the mind as it is the heart.

In this contemporary love story, a teenage boy named Karl enlists a famous writer to help him impress his girlfriend, Fiorella. She has asked him to write her a letter in which he reveals his true self. But Karl isn’t convinced he’s good enough with words, so he tracks down Fiorella’s favorite author and begs him to take up the task. The writer reluctantly assents, on the condition that Karl agree to a series of interviews, so that the letter will be based on an authentic portrait of Karl. The letter, though effective, has unexpected consequences for Karl, Fiorella, and the writer.

My Review: Wow. Just wow. From the beginning, this book seems like nothing much, common, run-of-the-mill in YA fiction. It takes until around one-hundred pages in to grab your attention, but then it grabs it and gives you a lot to think about.

This book is very unique, it’s told in the fictional author’s perspective, an old man, instead of the younger main character, Karl, which, at least to me, makes this book unique by doing something I seldom see.

I like that this book isn’t unrealistic, something that can easily happen in real life- a boy’s father dies, he closes himself off, so his girlfriend asks him to write answers to questions about himself, what he thinks, but he is dyslexic, so he asks her favorite author to write them instead.

It’s a sweet, funny, cute read, a pretty quick read too, but not super quick.

It has a lot of things to think about, when I stopped reading last night at 2 AM, my mind was buzzing so much with things to think about I couldn’t sleep.

I really like also how this book is written as if it actually happened, as if Aidain Chambers is actually the writer in the book.

Overall, this book is just… wow.

I can’t even begin to describe this book, just so many twists and turns happen, some for better, some for worse, and you just love the two main characters.

The only thing I even have a minor problem with is the cover- it doesn't convey anything about the story, I guess that would be hard, and it is a pretty, eye-catching cover, just it doesn't set the.... tone of the story. Let you know what it's about.

You really should get this book, you won’t regret it!