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A review by ashleygiammona
Above All Else by Dana Alison Levy
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/