This was SUCH a good book. From start to finish you couldn’t help but love Sam Hill. I think he might just be a perfect human being and I loved following his life. If everyone in the world was like Sam, the world would be a much better place. Not only was Sam wonderful, but his parents and friends were wonderful as well. 

It was a story of family and friendship, faith and love. It was an extremely moving story the entire way through. And listening to the acknowledgements at the end to learn that the story was partially based on his own family and his youngest brother who was born with Down syndrome made it even more meaningful. And it was also partially based on a real event that happened in Australia where a red eyed boy was truly denied entry to a Catholic school because they thought he would be a disruptive- because like Sam Hill he had been nicknamed the devil boy by his peers. 

I read this for my book club and I am so thankful it was selected because it was not on my radar before then. I think it will make for a wonderful discussion. 

And I also want to comment on the narration- ignore my starting comment below. The narration was wonderful and perfect and I cannot imagine Sam’s voice being narrated by anyone else. I am going to have to check out some of this author’s other books. Perhaps he narrates them as well. 

I am going to copy my commentary below…

- 1% we are off to a bad start. The audiobook narration is terrible. 
- 3% okay the narration is less terrible when sped up some. I’m convinced they slow down the speaking voice slightly for the 1x speed. No one talks that slow. And it sounds wrong at 1x like it truly was sped down. 
- What does it mean to give up the pain for some poor soul in purgatory? Are you transferring your pain to them to make them suffer? Are you saying that you are suffering on behalf of those in purgatory so that they do not need to?
- I just realized that the author narrates the book. Now I feel a bit bad about my initial criticism. 
- 7% I love the tenacity of his mother. I really respect her for standing up to the church and fighting to get her son into the catholic school. 
- 16% I’ve never been bullied like Sam so I shouldn’t be saying what he should do, but I really wish he would tell someone. If he keeps telling the teacher when this kid steps on his sandwich etc, it will stop eventually. Right? Sure he would be labeled a snitch, but he’s not going to win any popularity contests anyways. So why not. Then he and his lunches will be safe. 
- 21% I’m really glad at Sam peed on that bully. He deserved it. But I’m a bit worried for his safety how. 
- And as a side note, I just want to say that the idea bathroom passes/keys are disgusting. All those people touching it, half of them not washing their hands… the key probably placed in all sorts of unsanitary places in the bathroom. Disgusting. 
- 27% he is reading the count of monte cristo in first grade?!?
- 47% what he did for Ernie, becoming a high school sport person for the newspaper, actually had me almost tearing up. Sam is such an amazing person. If everyone was like him the world would be a better place. 
- I am just so in love with this book so far. I am so thankful for my book club for bringing it to my attention and selecting it as one of our books. I will have to tell my grandma about it
- 56% HOLY SHIT did he escape a world of trouble by pure luck and chance. Holy shit. 
- 80% holy hell that was an unexpected twist. I didn’t like the cheating bitch but I didn’t want her to die. And oh god the man was with her when she died. 😭
- 83% Bateman is the biggest piece of shit on the planet. 
- And as a side note, my mom has a retinal detachment. Her eye is held together by a buckle of some sort. Not because she was beaten or anything- her side of the family actually has a genetic predisposition for it… oh joy for me. 
- 87% he is going to adopt this orphan I just know it 
- 90% ❤️❤️❤️