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    Fans of the Impossible Life
    Fans of the Impossible Life
    Fans of the Impossible Life
    Audiobook7 hours

    Fans of the Impossible Life

    Written by Kate Scelsa

    Narrated by Michael Curran-Dorsano, Imani Parks and MacLeod Andrews

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A captivating and profound debut novel about complicated love and the friendships that have the power to transform you forever, perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

    Mira is starting over at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to pretend that she could act like a functioning human this time, not a girl who can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

    Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn it’s as if he’s been expecting this blond, lanky boy with a mischief glinting in his eye.

    Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him . Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and impromptu road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

    As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 8, 2015
    ISBN9780062395788
    Author

    Kate Scelsa

    Kate Sclesa has performed in New York and around the world with experimental theatre company Elevator Repair Service in their trilogy of works based on great American Literature, including an eight-hour long performance that uses the entire text of The Great Gatsby. Kate lives in Brooklyn with her wife and two black cats. She is the author of Fans of the Impossible Life.

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    Reviews for Fans of the Impossible Life

    4/5

    62 ratings10 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      4.25
      Beautiful broken teenagers making the only choices they know how to block out the pain.
    • 4/5
      This was an amazing book. It tells the stories of three misfits who manage to find each other and provide each other strength and friendship. Each of the kids - Jeremy, Mira, and Sebby - get chapters to tell the story. Jeremy is a shy loner who is always sketching and who is just back in school after an incident the previous spring. His locker was painted with sexual slurs. He is questioning his own sexuality and lives with his father and his father's husband Dave. They are loving parents but can't protect him when he is at school.Mira is new at Jeremy's school this year. She needs a fresh start after missing most of the previous year because of a suicide attempt and a bout with depression. She would still prefer to sleep her life away rather than deal with the expectations of her lawyer parents and the example of her perfect older sister now away at Harvard. Mira is a devoted thrifter and is good at remaking and re-purposing the clothes she finds. She is not comfortable in her changing body and is gaining weight.Sebby is the gay foster kid who has dropped out of school but spends time hanging out with Mira and Jeremy at their school. Sebby is funny but hides a deep sense of loneliness and isolation. He fills his time shoplifting and using drugs and alcohol. When the three get to know each other, they come to depend on each other for their emotional stability until things go too far wrong for one of them.I liked the teacher at the school who befriended Jeremy and Sebby. Peter made a good sounding board for both Jeremy and Mira. Occasionally Sebby would join them at Peter's house but he didn't interact with Peter as much. I was not surprised at the outcome for Peter but I was saddened. I recommend this story to YAs who don't feel like they fit in. Mira, Jeremy and Sebby could be mirrors for kids who are different.
    • 4/5
      Omg, I don’t know what to do with my life anymore, great book that touches on friendship mental illness and addictions. It’s a very character driven story so the plot moves really slowly keep that in mind, but it’s a wonderful story the only thing I didn’t like was the open ending.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars

      I have never read a book like this. It's so close to 4 stars for me, so close and the ending pushed it closer to 4 stars, but it fell just a tad bit short. What makes this book remarkable is the fact that it's told in 3 different view points: first, second, and third. I loved Sebby's second person narration, and while it would have been tiring to read an entire novel in 2nd person, it is used so sparingly in this novel that Sebby really shines. Not to mention that he is by far the most interesting character, even if everyone else is fun too. Everyone in this book is such a beautiful mess, and the entire novel comes off very dark: there's a cloud of sadness hovering over every page, turning the stories a dark, stormy blue.

      Fans of the Impossible Life has a lot of potential, even if it doesn't quite make it. It's a good read, but not an outstanding one. I'd keep my eye on Scelsa though-- I can't wait to see what comes next.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book! The characters were multilayered and the plot was so realistic.
      They pulled me into their lives right away.
      We all need friends, especially during those dark moments in life.
      Teens will be able to identify with at least one of the characters and their daily struggles.

      Only thing I had an issue with was the ending. Some folks have loved it but I felt like there were some I asserted questions. It ended too abruptly without enough closure.
      Nonetheless, this will probably be high on many teens to-read list.
    • 4/5
      This is a young adult book coming out in September. I picked it up because the coy cover copy led me to believe the protagonists might end up in some sort of triad. Spoiler: they do! For like a night.

      This book was very readable, with strong characters that I believed in. It deals head-on with serious mental illness--two of the protagonists met in the mental hospital, and the third suffers from depression and bullying, and I'll give trigger warnings for bullying, violent homophobia, suicide attempts, and significant drug use. The style of this book is reminiscent of Perks of Being A Wallflower, and handles its characters honestly. I found the ending disappointing but believable (I wanted a happy poly ending, and that's not what I got) but I think as a book about troubled teens it's pretty decent, and it leaves the door open for future happiness.

      It also did a thing I see so infrequently but love, where the boundaries between love, identity, and sexual activity blur while remaining true to the characters' self-identities. Real life can be so much more complicated than one might expect based on stated identity, and this did a really good job navigating that.
    • 3/5
      Quick read with a lot of adults themes in it such as drug taking and sex so I'd say it's not suitable for younger readers It's about 3 'misfits' at school who struggle with day to day life there as they get bullied etc for being different but when they join as friends life seems to get easier...for now
    • 4/5
      I was initially unsure if I would enjoy this book or not; I was afraid that it would shift into bubblegum YA fiction where the love triangle is rather silly and superficial, with an extra super everything-is-tied-up-too-neatly ending, because, unfortunately, that is what I have been seeing a lot of recently.But this book was so not that type of story, and for that I am grateful.Instead, this book follows three teenagers: Jeremy, a shy art geek who doesn't really have any friends; Mira, an African-American-Jewish (OMG JEWISH REPRESENTATION YESSSSSSSS) girl who struggles with depression; and Sebby, a gay foster kid who has a rough life in the system. Mira and Sebby are best friends having met while hospitalized for Mira's suicide attempt and Sebby's suicidal ideations who, rather accidentally, draw Jeremy into their circle. Jeremy, at the suggestion of his favorite teacher, wants to start an art club, and Mira is the first person he approaches to join his club (he has to have ten interested students sign a petition before the art club can be officially formed). The trio form a tumultuous and intense friendship quickly. Some might not care for the author's writing style - Jeremy is written in first person, Sebby in second, and Mira in third - but that didn't bother me. It always made it easy to remember who was "talking," even though the three characters were definitely separate and distinct, so I didn't really need those clues. And I loved how the author didn't shy away from bad things happening to her characters. In fact, no one is really spared in this book. Jeremy is bullied because he has two dads. Sebby was beaten up at his prior school for being gay (so badly that he requires two surgeries), gets involved in doing drugs, has a horrible home life, and isn't exactly emotionally stable all of the time. Mira has a dysfunctional home life as well, and she is hospitalized again for her depression toward the end of the book. And Peter, the favorite teacher, is accused of behaving inappropriately with a student as revenge by another student, which gets him fired. But, I think, all of this made the book incredibly realistic and, well, amazing.I found Mira's struggles with depression to be extremely realistic and well done. Sebby's inability to remain "stable" in his own relationships (both friendships and romantic relationships) also rang very true to his character and what he had experienced (and continued to experience) in his life. Whoever came up with the tagline of this story being a love triangle between a girl, her gay best friend, and the bisexual guy who loves them both really sold the book short, because it is so, so, so much more than that. It is about friendship and messy relationships and trying to survive the cards that life has dealt you in your own way. It is about forming bonds that change your life. It is about chasing down that "impossible life" of happiness, even though it often does look impossible.I know that some were rather off put by the sex scene involving Sebby, Jeremy, and Mira, but...seriously, come on. Why does everything have to be geared toward monogamy? It wasn't graphic by any means (even if it was...so?), and I found it to be very true to Sebby's character at that point, especially since it seemed like he was pushing Mira and Jeremy to be together by then. They had a very intense friendship amongst the three of them that was quite emotionally deep. Is it really so hard to imagine them fooling around a bit with one another, especially when drunk (Mira and Jeremy) and high (Sebby)? I don't think so.I know that some people have problems with the ending, which isn't straightforward and cut dry. It's messy, but isn't life? I don't need every little thing tied into a bow to enjoy a book; in fact, it often takes away my enjoyment of a book if everything is tied up in neat little bow. Mira, Sebby, and Jeremy are all deeply flawed in their own ways, and to have them obtain that "impossible life" at the end just wouldn't feel right to me. I think the book ended as happily as it possibly could, to be honest, while staying true to the three main characters.Basically, this book was everything that I wanted it to be and more.
    • 4/5
      I wanted to read Fans of the Impossible Life because the mention of recurring depression and the fact that she had been in the hospital for it. I am a sucker for a book about mental illness, and while it seems like she is on an upward or stable phase, I wanted to read about her. I deal with mental health issues myself, and its always been a struggle for me, I've gone through multiple labels and treatments, so awareness is something that I am all about. It also seems like a different sort of love triangle. Mira and her depression was realistic. She had the spirals of negative thought that can lead to the feeling worse and not being able to get self out of it easily. She had the fatigue, the overbearing tiredness that sleep doesn't seem to fix. It takes over and colors everything. She tries hard and sometimes she breaks through these, but often there isn't much she can do. Jeremy is shy and he has been a victim of a hate crime and that has colored his social life. He hardly talks at school except to Peter, who is a very popular teacher there. He breaks out of his shell a bit when he forms an art club. He sees that Mira is different and he likes that, he needs student signatures and Mira is one of the first he asks, and she shows up along with her best friend Sebby. Sebby is a foster kid, very gay, and charismatic. He is attracted to Jeremy, but him and Mira can't figure out at first if he is gay or if he is attracted to Mira. But Jeremy seems to like spending time with the both of them. Sebby doesn't go to the same school as Jeremy and Mira, but he is there more than he is at his own school. It was a story of friendship, of love, of kids with hard problems that there are no easy solutions to. Their relationship was complicated, Jeremy fell for Sebby. Sebby and Mira have a past with friendship but also more complicated history because they met at the hospital. Sebby and Mira were friends before they met Jeremy, but they included him right away. There was also the cast of secondary characters that added another layer to the story. Jeremy's dads, the teacher Peter at school who was very involved in the lives of his students. There's Nick, who Sebby gets in trouble with. The flawed foster mom. Their other friends Rose, and Talia. The climax and ending are both very realistic, and its not all hea. These are kids in hard situations, and though their friendship has brought them lots of strength, sometimes the things they are facing are bigger than sixteen year olds can handle. The epilogue is more hopeful and gives a sense of closure and that they have the possibilities of a future, that their friendship might be able to survive, though getting there will take work. Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC (advanced review copy). I am not paid for this review, and my opinions in this review are mine, and are not effected by the book being freeThis is a book with dark or sad themes. Kids that have made hard choices from hard backgrounds. Also mentions depresssion, suicide, gay/lesbian relationships, drugs, drinking, and alludes to oral sex. It is a young adult book, but if under 18, ask parent's guidance.Bottom Line: Gritty story about three teens, and their friendship that helps them through.
    • 4/5
      Mira, Sebby, and Jeremy are all friends and where one is convex, one of the others is concave, so they all fit together in interesting ways. One of the more fascinating parts of the book was the actual writing- each of the characters has their own pov chapters and each is told in a different person (Jeremy's 1st person, Sebby's 2nd person, Mira's 3rd person). Happily, Sebby's chapters are the fewest since reading in 2nd person can be very awkward but it suits him well. The only real drawback to this book is the ending. We'll just say it did not stick the landing.