Reviewer (text)
Cassandra H., Teen Board Member
It’s impossible not to love everything about this book. BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER MEET ME is told completely in letters between two boys who’ve never met. In fact, if they did meet, one of them would most likely die. The book starts off with a letter from Ollie, a boy who lives in the middle of the woods, isolated from society with very good reason: He is allergic to electricity. Moritz, on the other hand, has an electric pacemaker. On top of that, he is eye-less and has mastered the art of echolocation to navigate his way around school. Their letters convey their unique stories --- Ollie’s relationship with a girl named Liz and Moritz’s troubles with a bully. Through their correspondence, the two find both friendship and hope even in the tragedy that tied their pasts together.
I have a love-hate relationship with epistolary novels. Either they are beyond fantastic and use the format wisely or they sound overly pretentious. I’m happy to say that Leah Thomas’s debut novel is exceedingly well written. Every letter shows something new about Ollie or Moritz and the characters’ voices couldn’t be stronger or more clear-cut to the reader. Ollie’s quirky optimism and the thawing of Moritz’s cynical heart are truly inspiring, not to mention that their letters are filled with humor and some great one-liners.
Ollie’s quirky optimism and the thawing of Moritz’s cynical heart are truly inspiring, not to mention that their letters are filled with humor and some great one-liners.
BECAUSE YOU’LL NEVER MEET ME is also incredibly self-aware. With the element of a mysterious laboratory past and the two characters’ weird circumstances, the reader can’t help but draw comparisons to Matt Murdock’s sightless superpower or Electro’s relationship with electricity --- but the book beats you to it by actually bringing up the Marvel comic books. It takes a little suspension of disbelief, since the novel has the tone of YA contemporary fiction but soon dips into sci-fi. However, the poignancy and surprising truths about life help ground the plot.
The danger of writing in letter format is that one character’s story may overpower the other. But what surprised me is that Thomas makes each and every chapter emotionally greater than the one before. The best part is, you’re truly living the life of either Ollie or Moritz as they recount their stories to each other. You have been warned, reader: you’ll fall in love with these strangely wonderful characters and their bizarre lives from the first page.
Teaser
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.
Promo
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.
About the Book
In a stunning literary debut, two boys on opposite ends of the world begin an unlikely friendship that will change their lives forever.
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.
A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine
