Fans of the Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa

The first day of my sophomore year of high school I somehow lost the ability to tie a tie. It was one of the same ties that I had worn every day since eighth grade, when the male population of St. Francis Prep got switched over from clip-ons, but on this morning it felt like an unfamiliar object in my hand. 

Published by Macmillan Children's Books in September 2015

Pages - 336

Summary

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 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.

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Reviewed by Vivienne Dacosta

This book is told from three different perspectives each very distinct. I loved Jeremy's first person accounts and Mira's third person ones, but I really struggled with Sebby's parts - told in second person, they really didn't  work very well. To be honest, it became annoying and I found myself skipping through his  parts, which is a shame because he had as much of a story to tell as the other two characters. 

This is a quiet story which slowly sinks into the rather fragile world of Sebby and Mira, shown through the eyes of Jeremy. Described as a bisexual love triangle is far from the truth. All three characters felt broken, relying heavily on the other two to help them mend. I think Jeremy just wanted to belong, after being alone for so long and he was dazzled by the attention he received from Sebby and Mira. He appeared to be in awe of them rather than in love with them. Sebby is purely out to shock everyone and I found him quite annoying. I know I should've felt sorry for him after all he had been through and the lack of love in his life, but I really struggled to like him.  While Mira and Jeremy excelled and blossomed in the new friendship, Sebby seemed to spiral in a downwards direction, completely out of control.  

This book had potential but I don't feel it reached it. It dealt more with the emotional difficulties the three of them were coping with rather than a love affair between them. I think this book is really about three emotionally broken teenagers finding comfort in each other, enabling them to cope with the    difficulties teenage life throws at them. Worth a read but don't expect a bisexual love triangle.