Riveted by Simon teen is trying to encourage reading for the new year and is offering 9 free ebooks until 2019 and is branding it #Resolvetoread. This was one of the free books and the synopsis was different and caught my interest. And, I gotta say that it was unlike anything I ever read and it had me hooked!

Ozzie a senior in high school is looking for his missing boyfriend, Tommy, who no one else seems to remember and he doesn't appear to exist. We follow Ozzie as he goes through his last year and still continuing to search for Tommy, all the while more and more of the world Ozzie (and we are) familiar with seems to be shrinking.

This book has a lot of heavy material such as self harm, rape and molestation, drugging, pedophile. But for as heavy as these subjects are they are handled well. I enjoyed the way the author handled orientation, gender and mental health in a way that didn't romanticize them as some other do. When reaching the end of Ozzie's world I really understand what the book was trying to say- even when it feels like your world is ending it really isn't. Graduating high school is terrifying in a way, you have the rest of your life stretchered out in front of you but you are leaving your old life behind.

If you like suspenseful, lbgtq+, mental health issues books then give this a try.

I'm not exactly sure what I just read.

This book was engaging and absolutely something I couldn't put down. At first it seemed like science fiction, but now I'm not so sure. I have to say, I was incredibly engaged in all aspects of the story, BUT I really can't say I understood it. I don't understand why things happened the way they did, or what anything meant. I think the book is kind of supposed to be a giant metaphor, or not exactly a metaphor but the events Ozzie goes through all culminate at the end of the book, and it's kind of up for interpretation what really happened. I got a feel kind of like that of [b:We Were Liars|16143347|We Were Liars|E. Lockhart|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1402749479s/16143347.jpg|21975829], especially reaching the end of the book.

All I'm going to say is, I need a Harry Potter fix to get this out of my head, because it was all just really weird. I'm not saying it wasn't good, because the writing and the story were pretty phenomenal, but it was incredibly weird.

I liked The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley and the absolutely loved We Are The Ants - I can tell I’m a new huge fan of Shaun David Hutchinson. I have to say, I liked We Are The Ants more (it’s now one of my favorite books in general), but I love how the writing style/atmosphere from that book transferred to this one. The whole time, you don’t know what’s going on. You don’t know if Ozzie is correct, or if he’s wrong, or if the universe is ACTUALLY shrinking. I like it when a story has something that’s not explained but is just accepted - so the universe is shrinking. Okay. So what is happening while this is happening?
And the ending...had me shook lol. I knew it would be something like that, but I love how the reader doesn’t really know what’s going on the whole time. I love just being thrown into a story and then being surprised when it’s not what I expected.

I cried. It's a sad story.


Ozzie's world is confusing, but it's getting clear near the end of story.


it's really really good.


I kinda like how this story ended.

**4.8/5**

**TW for: mentions of rape, self harm, homophobia, nihilism, underage drinking, sexual relationships**

Really good. And also really deep. I got the same feeling reading this that I did with We Are The Ants in that I felt like I was either missing or not understanding the deeper meaning that the sci-fi elements of the story held. I think at the end of this one, though, it was more obvious what the sci-fi aspect could stand for.

I thought that, overall, all of the characters were startlingly real. I wasn't a fan of Lua at all throughout the story. I thought they were hypocritical and selfish when dealing with their friendship with Ozzie. I thought Dustin was more of a plot point and that was a bit disappointing because he didn't feel like much other than someone who handled a situation a certain way so that Ozzie could learn from it. He was a little flat so I was let down there. Ozzie himself was also selfish and really self-centered with his problems. But all of these things made them that much more real. Because we, as real people, aren't perfect and we have both good and bad qualities and both help us grow into being better people if we choose to allow it, and that's what the characters in this book did. And high school kids don't have all the answers and they can be ignorant about a lot of things and willfully so because it's easier that way. It's easier to be blissfully unaware.

**Slight Spoiler here**

I read a review talking about how they felt that the reveal being that Tommy had broken up with Ozzie being a cop-out or a let down with how much the book had climaxed, and I have to disagree. When we are in high school we think that the world exists in this bubble of everything that happens to us; like everything is the end of the world when we're upset. I know that's how I felt. And I felt like Ozzie was really consumed with Tommy and that's also realistic of first love and young love where everything exists around that person and we don't really do anything outside of them or exist without them, and we don't really have an individual identity because we want to do whatever we can to hold onto what we have. And Tommy pointed out how damaging that can be in the long run.

But the breakup being the "end of the world" for Ozzie was a realistic kind of portrayal of how love can be all consuming and how when we're in high school we can live in a bubble that only pops as we grow. Because we see the world as small and only existing where we exist. And the point, I think, of the book was to say that life is a lot bigger than high school and a lot bigger than a break up and a lot bigger than our first love and if we just stay where we're comfortable without allowing ourselves to experience other things we stay in that bubble mindset.

I don't 100% agree with that because I think people can stay where they are and be comfortable and be okay and people don't need to go out and explore the universe to be fully happy. I think it's okay to stay where you grew up if that's what you want. The world as a whole is scary and some people won't ever be ready for that jump. I'm glad that I did, but it's not for everyone. And that's okay.

I love this book. The characters were realistic in their struggles and made their mistakes. The emotion was true and if created a very poignant story. It has a similar vibe as “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Sercrets of the Universe”.

So instead of aliens trying to blow up the human homeland, the universe is now shrinking?

With most authors I'd be skeptical, but after We Are the Ants, Shaun David Hutchinson could write about rockette monkeys performing Chicago on Mars and I'd read it.

*After Actually Reading the Book*

“Don’t get so focused on where you’re going that you forget the people yo’re travelling with. There’s no point reaching a destination if you arrive alone.”

After the god send known as [b:We Are the Ants|23677341|We Are the Ants|Shaun David Hutchinson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425574151s/23677341.jpg|43285034], I was so excited for this book that I pre-ordered it four months in advance. Yep. I’m a slave to the writing of Shaun David Hutchinson.

This book was even better than I hoped it would be. Plus, it had ties to both We Are the Ants and The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley (embed links). Diego and Henry (mainly Diego though) make an appearance, the Patient F movies are mentioned, and the main character of this novel, Ozzie, works at a book store and had to inform a customer that they don’t have a YA novel about ants and aliens. How both We Are the Ants is a book in this universe and Diego and Henry are spotted is beyond me, but I’m totally for it regardless. The more Diego the better, right?

Ozzie is fantastic. He has a similar sense of humor as Henry, but Ozzie is completely his own man. When his boyfriend is suddenly erased from existence, Ozzie is willing to do anything to find him and bring him back. Even when his obsession begins to take its toll on his personal life. Then enter Calvin, his fellow student, who seems to have problems even deeper and more profound than Ozzie’s own.

I’ll never not love these books. There’s something so unique and beautiful about them. Their oddball science fiction plotlines that somehow mix perfectly with extremely contemporary issues. Their broken and yet perfect boys. The sarcastic writing style that can’t be duplicated. I’ll recommend and love these books until my death bed. I swear on it.

“You can choose to be happy with what life gives you,” he said, “or spend your life miserable. I choose happiness. It’s really that simple.”

3,75/5 stars


Merged review:

3,75/5 stars

"I'll always find you. No matter how big the universe is, I will always find you." ❤️

Omg, I have no words. This book is my favorite, I loved it from the beginning to the end.

Initially when I picked this up I was excited to read it. After reading The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, I was eager to dive into another story written by the same author. Up until about halfway I wasn't sure if I was liking it or not. But after finishing it, I really did enjoy it.