half

Book Review of Half, by Eli Lang

I received a copy of Eli Lang‘s Half from Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Living between worlds has never been comfortable, but it’s where I’ve always fit: between human and fey, illness and health, magic and reality. 

I’ve spent the last six years looking for a cure for the nameless sickness eating me up. If I believed there was one out there, I would keep searching. But there isn’t, so I’ve come back home, where my past and present tangle. Come home to live . . . and to die. 

But my father insists I meet Kin. He’s a healer, and determined to help, even though I’m not so hopeful anymore. But Kin isn’t what I expected, in any way. He sees me, not my illness. He reminds me of what it’s like to be alive. And I can’t help falling for him, even though I know it isn’t fair to either of us. 

Kin thinks he has the cure I’ve been looking for, but it’s a cure that will change everything: me, my life, my heart. If I refuse, I could lose Kin. But if I take it, I might lose myself. 

Review:
Oh man, what to say about Half? It’s absolutely, devastatingly, hauntingly beautiful. The writing and language in this book is amazingly poignant. The characters are similarly lovely. The dilemma the main character finds himself in, the decision he has to make and the effect it will have on the people he loves is a gripping one. And that final decision was the harder, certainly literarily rarer one and I appreciated that. I think it’s one disabled readers should get to see more often.

However, it’s basically insta-love, leading to insta-relationship, there isn’t a lot to the plot considering how long the book is, and a lot seems to hinge on decisions of the past. It’s also very slow. Slow in a contemplative way, not a boring way, but it’s certainly not action packed. In a very real way I kind of felt like all the lush language got in the way of telling the story. It’s evocative, but tended to stall the forward movement. I do look forward to more of Lang’s writing though.

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