Because You'll Never Meet Me "OR" Is It Contemporary? Is It Sci-fi? No, It's Supe
- Connor Tex
- Mar 5, 2016
- 4 min read
Title: Because You'll Never Meet Me
Author: Leah Thomas
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Rating: 5 stars
Blurb:
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him. A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.
Because You'll Never Meet Me received a lot of hype upon its release in mid-2015. Most of my Goodreads feed was consumed by reviews (mostly good, some lukewarm) of Thomas' debut. I didn't so much actively put off picking it up as it sat lower on my Absurd Pile of Books Under My Desk™. Now, having finally gotten the chance to get to it, I've found myself completely blown away.
There's been a lot of discussion surrounding the labelling of this novel. The majority of the narrative has all the hallmarks of the contemporary realistic genre; stories of two young men weaving their way through adolescence as best they can, and facing many of the issues that most teenagers face in some form or another. Namely: bullying, crushes, and disappointing parents. These issues provide the meat of the story, and for the most part, this read as a contemporary realistic novel.
However, the thing that shaped those issues was the overarching attribute that each boy had. Ollie was allergic to electricity. Moritz had a weak heart, but more astonishingly, no eyes. These attributes might look upon first skim to be simply a unique take on writing the struggle of a disabled character -- rather rare disabilities, but with a grounding in reality e.g. Moritz's 'blindness'. It is here that the argument for sci-fi comes into play. The reasons for each boys' disability (and actually, I loathe to call them that, because they turn out to be abilities, which both hinder and help), is a definite sci-fi plot. Without giving any spoilers, there's a laboratory involved.
I've seen people become disillusioned with the turn of the narrative to a more sci-fi leaning, and some outright betrayed by what they saw as an unrealistic and unnecessary departure from what they'd settled into from the beginning. To be quite honest, that seems like a total overreaction to me.
It's become easy to label things in definite genre boxes, and I get that. Publishers do it for promotional reasons, Goodreads does it for logistical ease, and I do it too, as a librarian helping with reader reccs. But like all things, if taken too far, it can become less of a helping hand and more of an oppression. Being told what we're reading is akin (sometimes) to casting decisions in screen adaptations. If the front cover shouts at me "This is contemporary lit!!!" I'm no doubt going to go in expecting high school, friendship, possibly romance, definitely self-exploration and discovery. I won't go in expecting labs and doctors and wriggling feelers. For those people who felt betrayed by the turn of genre, it can be a real shame that it's spoiled the story for them.
Because this was a truly beautiful story. Beyond the quirkiness, this was a story about love. All kinds of love, which are my favourite kinds of stories. I'm a sucker for romantic love in basically its forms, but the thing that's guaranteed to tug at my heartstrings are platonic love stories. Friendship is my be-all and end-all. The friendship between Ollie and Moritz started off as hesitant, but the authenticity with which it unfolded was just delightful. The character development had a large part in this, I felt. Moritz's progression from the distrustful, antisocial boy he was to the loving and hopeful young man he ended up being made me tear up.
Ollie was no slouch, either. I'll admit, to begin with, he annoyed me a little. But I think he was probaby supposed to. He's a younger protagonist (14, I think), which naturally changes the tone of his voice. I grew to love that voice very quickly, though, from the moment he defended Moritz from his own self-esteem issues. Ollie is one of the sweetest, saddest characters I've had the pleasure of knowing, and his story was heart-breaking.
Possibly my favourite notion within the book, and there were a hell of a lot to choose from, was the idea that if Ollie had met Moritz first in the forest, rather than Liz, it might have been him he fell in love with. And while it was clarified toward the end that Ollie wasn't romantically interested in Moritz at that point in time, I truly believe, and not just with my gay-goggles on, that Ollie is a purposefully fluid character, and that the reason he wasn't in love with Moritz was because he was already in love with Liz. That fluidity, and the treatment of sexuality, was sublime. Such a refreshing angle to see young characters embracing the fact that they don't know what's what, they just know love.
I don't want to give any spoilers, but the ending was hopeful in the midst of so much darkness, and makes me wish desperately for a sequel just so I can hang out with them again (all together). Having said that, I believe that this is a stand-alone novel, and I am totally on board with that. While I'd love to know what happens next, it wrapped up perfectly, on just the right note.
I adored Because You'll Never Meet Me, way more than I was really expecting to, and I'd recommend it to fans of love stories, regardless of genre. (Also, the lab stuff was super creepy and cool).
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