The Thing With Feathers Review

Title: The Thing with Feathers

Author: McCall Hoyle

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary

Trigger Warnings: Death of a parent

My Rating: 5 Stars

Synopsis

Emilie Day believes in playing it safe: she's homeschooled, her best friend is her seizure dog, and she's probably the only girl in North Carolina who hasn't learned to swim. That safety ends when Emilie's mom enrolls her in public school. Soon, Emilie is paired with starting point guard Chatham York for a project on Emily Dickinson. Though she's thrilled when Chatham shows interest, there's a problem: she hasn't told anyone about her epilepsy.

Review

McCall Hoyle's The Thing with Feathers is a coming of age story about Emilie, a teenage girl who while dealing with public high school for the first time, matures and grows as she learns how to live with her epilepsy and grief. The portrayal of grief is very realistic and I have seen some of the issues Emilie faces as she tries to face her grief in a classmate and also in myself.

This is an amazing story that I read in one sitting. I expected it to be primarily fluff and romance, but the representations of grief and epilepsy caused real issues to be discussed, adding a depth to the novel. Emilie at the beginning of the story is annoying, but this allows her to grow and develop into a strong character that by the last page is powerful and unforgettable. The male character also is not the stereotypical YA love interest and has his own depth and characterization. While I would have liked some more maturity from the character at the beginning, this does all for this massive growth to help create a girl that grows into herself and is able to define who she is as she learns more about the world around her.

The setting was amazingly portrayed and described. It suits this book perfectly. I actually visited those islands in North Carolina at the beginning of this year and the descriptions portrayed the scenery that I remember without getting too bogged down.

I would recommend this book to other lovers of YA coming of age novels who want a light romance read that has a little bit more depth to it.

Thanks for reading! Do you know any other books with good portrayals of grief?

Comments

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