Smith, Emily Wing. The Way He Lived. Flux. November 2008. ISBN: 978-0-7387-1404-2. Gr 9-12.
-- School Library Journal, 11/19/2008
Let me say this: The Way He Lived should be a major contender for some big awards, otherwise there is seriously something wrong those awards committee that would pass on something so brilliant. This is the best teen novel I have read so far this year. It's powerful, it's unique, it's beautifully written, it's moving, and it's everything that a teen novel should be. All of the characters are so realistic and easy to relate to. I became very attached to all of them and I was sad when their portion of the narration ended.
The prose flowed beautifully. There was never a point in the text where it got choppy or awkward, or where it seemed that a section was an afterthought. Everything was seamless. The concept is fantastic too, with six differing perspectives on a teenage life. Alden, the debate captain, was so different from Miles, the bad boy, and their perspectives brought a unique color to the text and really helped to paint a brilliant portrait of Joel, a teen that dies of exposure on a Boy Scout camping trip.
That’s another thing that’s so amazing about this book. Although he graces the cover and is a very large part of the novel, Joel doesn’t overpower or overshadow the fact that the six teens who narrate the text are characters on their own, and have their own stories to tell. The novel isn’t simply about Joel - it’s about teenagers dealing with death and grieving. It’s about teenagers going to high school, questioning their community, and figuring out who they are. This book is absolutely stunning, and there is not a teenager out there that I know of who would not enjoy this novel.
The most compelling aspect of the book was how simple it was, and yet it still made a good point. Smith chose to take six characters and provide a “snapshot” of their living, and their adjustment to life without their friend and brother Joel Espen. The characters are so realistic, and they jump off the page; each of them were vividly unique, and they stood out from one another, so much that I remember their names and specific things about them after putting the book down. The litte “snapshots” of a day to a few weeks of a character’s life were what made the book so profound. Each of the snapshots didn’t work towards some huge climax, or largely defining moment, but rather provided a picture of ordinary teenage life that seemed to say that everyday moments could be big moments too. I didn’t feel like the novel tried to be anything more than six “snapshots” in teenage life, there was no long, complicated story line, or huge climatic moment, and this novel didn’t need that. This book doesn’t try to make a large point about teenage death and grief, but rather makes a lot of little points that somehow add up to one big truth. It’s in the simplicity of this book that its beauty comes out, which is six perspectives on teenage life told by realistic teens. It doesn't try to be anything it's not.
I liked the cover of the book and felt it matched the story line perfectly. The idea of the snapshot pictures was perfect, because in the book, we got "snapshots" of six teen lives and how they were affected by Joel's death. It's also a brilliant cover because we get different views of Joel, from sad to serious, just like in the novel. The color scheme works well with the book too, because it's not a bright and happy story. It's absolutely perfect.
I don't know much about Mormonism, which casts a long shadow over the book. A little background on Mormonism might be helpful for readers unfamiliar with the religion, and it could help with better understanding of the religion. And, if Joel was born on June 30, 1991 and died on June 10, 2007, he wouldn't have been sixteen when he died, like it says in the book. That should be fixed. – Sara M., age 16This review is from a member of the Teens Know "Best" YA Galley Group of the St. Paul Public Library and the Metropolitan State University Library and Learning Center (MN), a part of YALSA's Young Adult Galley/Teen Top Ten Project which uses 15 public libraries and school library media centers from across the country to provide feedback to publishers of young adult books.
