An honest look at mental illness
Biz has had a very difficult year. High school hasn’t been the easiest from the beginning, and a recent series of events has left her without her best friend. Since her dad died when Biz was seven, he’s been appearing to her. But after an incident on the beach, he hasn’t been around, at all. In a desperate attempt to understand where he’s gone and why he died, Biz sets off on a quest to see all the places her dad had been--and where he came from. With the help of Jasper, a new boy at school, she will learn about her dad, herself, and what it really means to not feel okay and to get better.
This book was well-written with very eloquent, beautiful prose and honest expressions of mental illness, although it had a few flaws. At times, the plot was unevenly paced, and several plot devices felt rough or inconsistent throughout. The characters were also a little imbalanced, as some were well-developed and others seemed a little flat. Overall, though, this book sings in the way it is written, and manages to share an important perspective on mental illness, family, and understanding yourself.
In my reading experience, the weakest part of this story was the plot. While it was engaging and kept moving at a good pace, there were times that felt like they hadn’t been thought out completely. For example, certain names or plot elements were introduced in the final third of the story--things that were clearly referenced earlier, but never named in the way they were at the end--which gave the story a bit of a schizophrenic feeling.
Despite these things, this is a great road trip/quest story grounded in reality with the potential for some fantastical elements. There’s a lot happening--certainly enough to fill 400+ pages. And while the rhythm of the story skips beats now and then, we manage to find time to dwell on some of the smaller, seemingly less significant elements of the story. In the end, the plot doesn’t wrap up perfectly, and I see that as a plus. For a book dealing with so many complex and awful things, it should leave some questions unanswered.
While I wouldn’t say this was a “character-driven” piece, there are great moments of character development. The essential core of the plot is Biz seeking to understand her father, and we follow her on this journey and learn about him as well. Like the plot, I felt the characters were a little uneven. Our main characters were, for the most part, well developed and complex, but only some of our side characters managed to show depth. Thus, some characters held you in the story while others felt less significant (whether they were or not).
There were a few character “tropes” here that I greatly enjoyed. First is the m/f friendship at the heart of the story. While questions about how Biz feels about Jasper and so on come up, the overall tone is platonic. That questioning leads into my second loved element, which is the queer representation. I think it is so important to have a character like Biz, questioning her sexuality and her identity on the page. These kinds of characters show readers that it’s always okay to wonder and to ask. I also really warmed up to Dad. His character is so central to the plot, even as he’s not really there.
Plot and character are great, but what led me to love this story was the writing. It’s so poetic and beautiful, Fox manages to capture emotions in the moment by the words she picks and the phrases she builds. This aspect of the story will carry it above young adult and into “general fiction,” for sure. It’s enough to say it was spectacular, and anyone who wonders what that means should go try reading it themselves.
How it Feels to Float is a great debut. It’s clearly a first novel, but that shouldn’t be held against it. Fox has walked onto the scene with a gut-wrenching read about mental health and forgiving yourself. It’s a very honest look at mental illness, within oneself and inside another person. There were some bumps and hiccups here and there, but the writing flows flawlessly throughout. I recommend this as a hard-hitting young adult contemporary, although older audiences who don’t still read YA like me may appreciate this one for its prose. Ultimately, I look forward to picking up any- and everything Fox writes in the future.
This book was well-written with very eloquent, beautiful prose and honest expressions of mental illness, although it had a few flaws. At times, the plot was unevenly paced, and several plot devices felt rough or inconsistent throughout. The characters were also a little imbalanced, as some were well-developed and others seemed a little flat. Overall, though, this book sings in the way it is written, and manages to share an important perspective on mental illness, family, and understanding yourself.
In my reading experience, the weakest part of this story was the plot. While it was engaging and kept moving at a good pace, there were times that felt like they hadn’t been thought out completely. For example, certain names or plot elements were introduced in the final third of the story--things that were clearly referenced earlier, but never named in the way they were at the end--which gave the story a bit of a schizophrenic feeling.
Despite these things, this is a great road trip/quest story grounded in reality with the potential for some fantastical elements. There’s a lot happening--certainly enough to fill 400+ pages. And while the rhythm of the story skips beats now and then, we manage to find time to dwell on some of the smaller, seemingly less significant elements of the story. In the end, the plot doesn’t wrap up perfectly, and I see that as a plus. For a book dealing with so many complex and awful things, it should leave some questions unanswered.
While I wouldn’t say this was a “character-driven” piece, there are great moments of character development. The essential core of the plot is Biz seeking to understand her father, and we follow her on this journey and learn about him as well. Like the plot, I felt the characters were a little uneven. Our main characters were, for the most part, well developed and complex, but only some of our side characters managed to show depth. Thus, some characters held you in the story while others felt less significant (whether they were or not).
There were a few character “tropes” here that I greatly enjoyed. First is the m/f friendship at the heart of the story. While questions about how Biz feels about Jasper and so on come up, the overall tone is platonic. That questioning leads into my second loved element, which is the queer representation. I think it is so important to have a character like Biz, questioning her sexuality and her identity on the page. These kinds of characters show readers that it’s always okay to wonder and to ask. I also really warmed up to Dad. His character is so central to the plot, even as he’s not really there.
Plot and character are great, but what led me to love this story was the writing. It’s so poetic and beautiful, Fox manages to capture emotions in the moment by the words she picks and the phrases she builds. This aspect of the story will carry it above young adult and into “general fiction,” for sure. It’s enough to say it was spectacular, and anyone who wonders what that means should go try reading it themselves.
How it Feels to Float is a great debut. It’s clearly a first novel, but that shouldn’t be held against it. Fox has walked onto the scene with a gut-wrenching read about mental health and forgiving yourself. It’s a very honest look at mental illness, within oneself and inside another person. There were some bumps and hiccups here and there, but the writing flows flawlessly throughout. I recommend this as a hard-hitting young adult contemporary, although older audiences who don’t still read YA like me may appreciate this one for its prose. Ultimately, I look forward to picking up any- and everything Fox writes in the future.