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thebakersbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Pretty enjoyable, but wish content warnings had been included at the beginning of the book. There's a pretty graphic, emotional death in the third act.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Vomit
emilygrujic's review
4.0
I am obsessed with mountains, so I knew I would love this book in one way or another. While the writing was great, I did find Rose and Tate's tone and voice a little too immature and it sometimes pulled me out of the story. The plot was also a little slow in some parts, but it still took me only two days to read. This story will stay with me forever, I think, because it's sparked an interest in a whole new genre for me - I want to read more books about mountain climbing! It's just so fascinating seeing the training and trauma people put themselves through just to reach the summit of a mountain. The themes of this book were so strong and it's what captivated me the most: Rose and Tate's motivation for climbing, the realities of PTSD, what the mind and body go through in order to survive, why people climb mountains in the first place. (Also, Tate is my son and I love him). SUPER INTERESTING. And what I loved the most was that the consequences of their choices and their journey and the brutal environment of the mountain were very real. I was just so impressed by this and I'm excited that I've found a new niche genre that I love lol.
vaiomo's review
2.0
I don't know about this one. I guess this one just wasn't for me.
For people who are gonna read this, there are minor spoilers in this.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me an arc of this book for an honest review.
I went into this book with an open mind, I had never read a book about climbing before so I was very intrigued. I went into the book getting to know the characters and all things went well.
Characters looked great and they want to climb the Mount Everest cool. Okay so they want to climb the Mount Everest. They want to climb the Mount Everest. Hmmmmm.
Yeah I wanna say like the first 50% of this book is them wanting to climb the mount everest and getting ready for it, talking with other people about it and such and then eventually getting to the camp where it actually starts. Then a breakdown and a random sex scene. Yeah that's what I got from it.
I was so excited about this book but got so disappointed. Eventually when the big moment is supposed to be there and it was all supposed to happen like the whole realization of things. I felt like it was rushed on 1 page and was like "Okay well got 10 more pages to write till this can be called a good size novel" stuff like that.
Anyhow the general story was okay. The characters were fine but yeah I got nothing great to tell other than that.
Oh wait I do
The random disney song singing is what I live for.
2/5 stars
For people who are gonna read this, there are minor spoilers in this.
Thank you to the publisher for giving me an arc of this book for an honest review.
I went into this book with an open mind, I had never read a book about climbing before so I was very intrigued. I went into the book getting to know the characters and all things went well.
Characters looked great and they want to climb the Mount Everest cool. Okay so they want to climb the Mount Everest. They want to climb the Mount Everest. Hmmmmm.
Yeah I wanna say like the first 50% of this book is them wanting to climb the mount everest and getting ready for it, talking with other people about it and such and then eventually getting to the camp where it actually starts. Then a breakdown and a random sex scene. Yeah that's what I got from it.
I was so excited about this book but got so disappointed. Eventually when the big moment is supposed to be there and it was all supposed to happen like the whole realization of things. I felt like it was rushed on 1 page and was like "Okay well got 10 more pages to write till this can be called a good size novel" stuff like that.
Anyhow the general story was okay. The characters were fine but yeah I got nothing great to tell other than that.
Oh wait I do
The random disney song singing is what I live for.
2/5 stars
torifaye's review
3.0
I loved the focus on how white tourism is negatively impacting the community. I do think this book was more focused on the love interest over mountaineering, but most teens would probably appreciate that.
booksandpops4000's review
4.0
* I got this book for review from the publisher*
I really loved the concept of this novel and loved learning more about climbing mount everest. I really loved how this was focused on the adventure to get to the top. I really did like the Duel POV. This book did handle harder topics like anxiety and depression and had some nail bitting moments. I really loved rose has a characters and sometimes struggled to be in tate head. I struggled a bit with the focus on the romance in the first half of the novel but really loved how this book wrapped up! Def check out this book this fall!
I really loved the concept of this novel and loved learning more about climbing mount everest. I really loved how this was focused on the adventure to get to the top. I really did like the Duel POV. This book did handle harder topics like anxiety and depression and had some nail bitting moments. I really loved rose has a characters and sometimes struggled to be in tate head. I struggled a bit with the focus on the romance in the first half of the novel but really loved how this book wrapped up! Def check out this book this fall!
ashleygiammona's review
3.0
As a fan of Young Adult novels (especially Young Adult sports novels) and an avid reader of all things related to Everest, I was so excited to begin this book! I wish I could tell you that it was everything I dreamed it would have been, that it held up to similar fiction books about Everest, and is a superb work of fiction, but sadly that wouldn’t be my true opinion.
I read the author’s note at the end of the story that stated it took her six years to write this book, and in my opinion, it shows. The premise of the book is lovely; teenagers Tate and Rose have been best friends their whole lives and work toward a common goal of climbing Everest while finding love along the way. However, it’s the details that fall flat. Parts of the book have vivid scenery and a nice flowing story and then suddenly it feels rushed and something similar to romance novels I wrote in the sixth grade. It looks like someone wrote this in bits and pieces.
Things I loved: The cover art, women of color in a white male-dominated sport, the vivid scenery of the towns in Nepal, the well-written secondary character Yoon Su (a feisty Asian feminist climber! Heck yes!) and a positive discussion about mental health and getting the help needed to deal with trauma.
Things that I didn’t like/ could have been done better: The character of Tate is essentially defined by his ADHD, and repeated reminders that he doesn’t have as hard of a time as others with the lack of oxygen in the air in the mountains. His story revolves around the overused and cliche of a father upset with his ADHD son for not “trying hard enough.” As someone who suffers from ADHD it felt sad to see someone's character (and story) defined by their disorder and nothing more.
The author continued to use cliches and easy outs (not realistic to real teenagers) to tell a story that in the end could have been set anywhere. So much so that this is not a story I would recommend to most YA readers as it doesn’t offer anything original other than being set in Everest.
Rating 3 out of 5 stars. 2.5 stars for the first 75% of the book and the last half star for the ending that made the book at least tolerable.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
A copy of this review can be found on my Goodreads and my Blog:
https://love-your-shelf.com/2020/01/27/above-all-else/
I read the author’s note at the end of the story that stated it took her six years to write this book, and in my opinion, it shows. The premise of the book is lovely; teenagers Tate and Rose have been best friends their whole lives and work toward a common goal of climbing Everest while finding love along the way. However, it’s the details that fall flat. Parts of the book have vivid scenery and a nice flowing story and then suddenly it feels rushed and something similar to romance novels I wrote in the sixth grade. It looks like someone wrote this in bits and pieces.
Things I loved: The cover art, women of color in a white male-dominated sport, the vivid scenery of the towns in Nepal, the well-written secondary character Yoon Su (a feisty Asian feminist climber! Heck yes!) and a positive discussion about mental health and getting the help needed to deal with trauma.
Things that I didn’t like/ could have been done better: The character of Tate is essentially defined by his ADHD, and repeated reminders that he doesn’t have as hard of a time as others with the lack of oxygen in the air in the mountains. His story revolves around the overused and cliche of a father upset with his ADHD son for not “trying hard enough.” As someone who suffers from ADHD it felt sad to see someone's character (and story) defined by their disorder and nothing more.
The author continued to use cliches and easy outs (not realistic to real teenagers) to tell a story that in the end could have been set anywhere. So much so that this is not a story I would recommend to most YA readers as it doesn’t offer anything original other than being set in Everest.
Rating 3 out of 5 stars. 2.5 stars for the first 75% of the book and the last half star for the ending that made the book at least tolerable.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
A copy of this review can be found on my Goodreads and my Blog:
https://love-your-shelf.com/2020/01/27/above-all-else/
andreinaisabel's review
4.0
I'm so happy I read this book.
I had never read a story about climbing in my life, and I don't even know why this one caught my attention, but I'm glad it did.
Rose and Tate are going to climb Everest after a life of preparing, and it isn't going to happen exactly how they dreamed about it for such a long time. Rose's mom can't come anymore, even though she was a big part of the plan, and Tate's dad is coming but is not feeling as well as he should. At the beginning it was kind of difficult to get into de story because it kept going back and forth, which made hard to get interested on the characters. The second half of the book was my favorite, I was completely invested on the climbing and couldn't stop reading until I finished. I loved all the details, they made me curious about Everest and I ended up doing what I love the most: opening ten tabs on my browser so I could read EVERYTHING about it.
I was kind of disappointed on the romance: it was unnecessary. Still, I understood why it was there so I made the effort to read those parts, too (thank God they were only a few).
In the end, this book is not just about climbing the Everest, it's about a journey. It's about people that want to do something big (all of them for different reasons) and how their past affects the experience. I loved getting to know these characters.
I received an e-ARC of this story through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!
I had never read a story about climbing in my life, and I don't even know why this one caught my attention, but I'm glad it did.
Rose and Tate are going to climb Everest after a life of preparing, and it isn't going to happen exactly how they dreamed about it for such a long time. Rose's mom can't come anymore, even though she was a big part of the plan, and Tate's dad is coming but is not feeling as well as he should. At the beginning it was kind of difficult to get into de story because it kept going back and forth, which made hard to get interested on the characters. The second half of the book was my favorite, I was completely invested on the climbing and couldn't stop reading until I finished. I loved all the details, they made me curious about Everest and I ended up doing what I love the most: opening ten tabs on my browser so I could read EVERYTHING about it.
I was kind of disappointed on the romance: it was unnecessary. Still, I understood why it was there so I made the effort to read those parts, too (thank God they were only a few).
In the end, this book is not just about climbing the Everest, it's about a journey. It's about people that want to do something big (all of them for different reasons) and how their past affects the experience. I loved getting to know these characters.
I received an e-ARC of this story through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!
charis_reads's review
4.0
*Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
Above All Else was a really cool story that made me want to do more research about Mount Everest and the expeditions to the summit. The book was really well researched and thought out. I was really able to understand the pressure the characters were going through and the ambition that they experienced in different aspects and areas of their lives.
The plot was steady, like a climb, which is really appropriate considering the plot and subject of the novel.
This book really captured my interest. Above All Else is a cool take from a mountain climbers’ perspectives. It made it even more down to earth for these climbers to be young and struggle through other things.
The characters were very understandable, and the book had a really good and realistic plot and ending. I also got to learn more about what Everest expeditions are really like! The characters were really well developed, and it was portrayed as a good and okay thing for them to follow certain paths for certain reasons, which I thought was a really cool approach (no pun intended).
I would recommend this for those who like a quick read with an adventure and realistic happenings and circumstances. I enjoyed it quite a bit. In all, I like how this book was written, and I would recommend it to young adults who are in for a taste of adventure and peril, and who are also up for family, friend, and romantic relationships growing amongst that.
Above All Else was a really cool story that made me want to do more research about Mount Everest and the expeditions to the summit. The book was really well researched and thought out. I was really able to understand the pressure the characters were going through and the ambition that they experienced in different aspects and areas of their lives.
The plot was steady, like a climb, which is really appropriate considering the plot and subject of the novel.
This book really captured my interest. Above All Else is a cool take from a mountain climbers’ perspectives. It made it even more down to earth for these climbers to be young and struggle through other things.
The characters were very understandable, and the book had a really good and realistic plot and ending. I also got to learn more about what Everest expeditions are really like! The characters were really well developed, and it was portrayed as a good and okay thing for them to follow certain paths for certain reasons, which I thought was a really cool approach (no pun intended).
I would recommend this for those who like a quick read with an adventure and realistic happenings and circumstances. I enjoyed it quite a bit. In all, I like how this book was written, and I would recommend it to young adults who are in for a taste of adventure and peril, and who are also up for family, friend, and romantic relationships growing amongst that.