Bo lives most of his week at Berkshire Academy, a school for
youth who are troubled in some way. Bo, however,
believes
the school is for people like him who have superpowers.
For Bo, this means his power to travel through time, and he
fears it is his power that caused him to lose the girl he
loved, Sofia. Sofia committed suicide, but Bo believes he
left her stuck in the past during a time travel trip. Full
of grief, Bo goes deeper into his delusions and believes he
can save her. But attempting to do so may destroy him.
A WORLD WITHOUT YOU is a moving and emotional story of a
grieving young man with a mental illness and his sister, who
feels both resentment and love for the brother she barely
knows anymore. What I love most about Beth Revis's latest
work is that Phoebe, the sister, narrates part of the book,
but she isn't used to tell Bo's story. Bo has a strong
voice, and he is in charge of his own narrative, though his
delusions don't match the reality in front of him. Readers
unfamiliar with mental illnesses that involve dissociation
and delusions should listen to Bo's side closely. Bo
has a mental illness, but unlike stereotypes or stigmas that
may suggest otherwise, he is a multi-faceted human being who
is capable of every emotion and has the ability to live a
full life. Even if it may look different than a neurotypical
one. His grief over Sofia is heartbreaking, and his journey
to heal and to find sustainable hope again, to break from a
toxic friend, and to let his voice be heard is absolutely
unforgettable.
Likewise, Phoebe is a well-rounded character in her own
right. Her relationship with her brother influences her
significantly, and she battles with herself over feelings of
jealousy, resentment, and affection towards her brother. She
feels more pressure to be the perfect child
when all she wants is freedom and room for
imperfections. The conclusion to her and Bo's story is
beautiful and heartrending.
Beth Revis's A WORLD WITHOUT YOU is an important take on
mental illness, sibling relationships, and learning how to
fight your problems in a healthy way.
After the unexpected loss of his girlfriend, a teenage
boy suffering from delusions is convinced that he can travel
through time to save her, in this gripping new novel from
New York Times bestselling author Beth Revis.
Seventeen-year-old Bo has always had delusions that he can
travel through time. When he was ten, Bo claimed to have
witnessed the Titanic hit an iceberg, and at fifteen, he
found himself on a Civil War battlefield, horrified by the
bodies surrounding him. So when his concerned parents send
him to a school for troubled youth, Bo assumes he knows the
truth: that he’s actually attending Berkshire Academy, a
school for kids who, like Bo, have "superpowers."
At Berkshire, Bo falls in love with Sofia, a quiet girl with
a tragic past and the superpower of invisibility. Sofia
helps Bo open up in a way he never has before. In turn, Bo
provides comfort to Sofia, who lost her mother and two
sisters at a very young age.
But even the strength of their love isn’t enough to help
Sofia escape her deep depression. After she commits suicide,
Bo is convinced that she's not actually dead. He believes
that she's stuck somewhere in time — that he somehow left
her in the past, and now it's his job to save her.
Not since Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story
has there been such a heartrending depiction of mental
illness. In her first contemporary novel, Beth Revis guides
readers through the mind of a young man struggling to
process his grief as he fights his way through his
delusions. As Bo becomes more and more determined to save
Sofia, he has to decide whether to face his demons head-on,
or succumb to a psychosis that will let him be with the girl
he loves.
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