I just posted by review on Every Day by David Levithan because I just read Invisibility by him today. The parallels are strong.
About the Book
Stephen is invisible. He’s been invisible since birth (how that birth went, I’m not so sure I want to know) and no one has ever been able to see him. He lived with his mother for the first fifteen years of his life, and then she died… and he’s been alone ever since.
Enter Elizabeth. (Also know as Jo, Josie, Liz, that girl, etc.) She’s just moved to New York City from Minnesota (and she says it correctly) and she’s bringing stuff up to their apartment and while trying to get the key in the door, she drops bags of stuff onto the ground. And then gets pissed when Stephen doesn’t at least offer to help pick it up.
He’s like “You see me?” and she’s like “Durr” and thus begins their fragile little romance. He manages to keep it a secret from her – that he’s invisible to rest of the world – until she tricks him into meeting her brother, the kind-hearted (and gay, because David Levithan wrote this) brother Laurie. Laurie can’t see Stephen, and this kinda forces him to come out (haha, get it?) and come clean to Elizabeth about his condition.
This sends the trio of them into the magical underworld of NYC, where they discover that there are cursecasters (that’s why Stephen is invisible) and spellseekers (which is why Elizabeth can see Stephen) and suddenly, it’s a race to see who’s going to finish first.
Was it any good?
Good question. I loved Every Day and I loved Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. I though Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Boy Meets Boy were okay. I have to put this one somewhere in the middle of my David Levithan readings. It wasn’t great, but it was better than okay.
What really threw me was the supernatural aspect of the book. It’s a surprisingly similar set-up to Every Day, but the supernatural aspect totally threw me for a loop. I wasn’t expecting it at all – and when he came out to her not even half way through the book, I was rather dumbfounded on what was going to happen. So in a way, I liked that surprise aspect.
On the other hand, it was a little annoying. One of the biggest challenges of creating a fantasy world is that you have to create a fantasy world, not just part of it. And I feel like only part of it was done here. There is a huge world that we got a glimpse of, but not enough of.
Louise…
Okay, if you name your male child “Louise”, what do you expect? Though I found him to be a good comic extra, and his budding relationship with Sean was cute. And the sisterly love and protection that Elizabeth had was nice and it helped further her character well. :)
Final Verdict
B+ or an A-
The cover is brilliant though. Bravo to whoever designed it.