Review: Because You'll Never Meet Me

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children Books
Publication date: July 2, 2015
Rating: 4 stars

Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie is allergic to electricity. Contact with it causes debilitating seizures. Moritz’s weak heart is kept pumping by an electronic pacemaker. If they ever did meet, Ollie would seize. But Moritz would die without his pacemaker. Both hermits from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times—as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him.A story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances, this debut is powerful, dark and humorous in equal measure. These extraordinary voices bring readers into the hearts and minds of two special boys who, like many teens, are just waiting for their moment to shine.(Goodreads)

I really liked this book. It took me a while to get into the book because from the start I was not feeling Moritz, he was cranky and drove me nuts. As the boys began to tell each other their stories it was a fascinating shift. At the beginning of the book Ollie read like he had a serious case of ADD, he was all over the place in a sometimes laugh out loud kind of way. We get the impression that he's like that because he so isolated and happy to finally have someone to talk to, but as his story unfolds, we learn there's a little more to it than that.

Moritz, on the other hand reminds me of a crotchety old grandpa. However the longer he talks to Ollie, and the more encouragement that Ollie gives him, although he still remains kind of crotchety, he branches out, makes friends, and even slowly steps into a relationship. (Snaps for that by the way).

The only problem that I really had with the book was show long they drew out the mystery of what happened between Ollie and Liz. Every time it was brought up and Ollie said some version of "I'll hold that story off for another day" I was super annoyed. I felt like the author wanted to keep us hooked to the story in a pandering kind of way. Also, I didn't like Liz. I understood, but didn't understand her all at the same time. I just didn't like her.

So, that being said, this is a great book, and appropriate for all age groups. Hats off!