In Sight of Stars by Gae Polisner
Published: Wednesday Books
Released: March 13 2018 (in the US)
ISBN: 9781250143839
Read: November 9 2017
Klee Alden has been very badly messed up since his father’s death. In trying to repress his despair and grief, naturally he makes things worse, and the first chapter sees Klee reacting to a situation in a dangerous and harmful way. When he wakes up to find himself in the ‘Ape Can’, a mental health facility for young people, we can see it’s going to be a long journey for him.
The story cleverly uses flashbacks and hallucinations to reflect Klee’s troubled state of mind. As the story progresses, and Klee starts to stabilise the narrative becomes less dream-like, and more direct. Secrets are revealed slowly, and we are led through the past eight months of Klee’s life, slowly and deliberately. Some of it is very hard to read, but Klee himself is a likeable character, one that readers want to see improve. We also want to know what’s the centre of his incredible melt down.
We also see the difficult relationship he shares with his mother, and there’s a girl Sarah who is impossible to decipher. We only have Klee’s very biased view of her, and in this sense, he is somewhat unreliable and misled. The other secondary characters have very small, but significant roles—best friend from his previous life, Cleto and current therapist Dr Alvarez who both only want the best for this terribly traumatised boy. I very much enjoyed meeting Sister Teresa Agnes, who may or may not be a figment of Klee’s impressionable mind. Her wise words and quirky ways challenge Klee to look at himself and others in new and enlightening ways.
I love the role Art plays here, and it’s been a recurrent theme in several YA books I have read recently. Art as therapy, as a way to connect with parents, and as an avenue to discovering identity—these are all valid and positive representations of the way can be utilised to great effect. Klee’s art work is very much an integral part of who he is, and that developed from his close bond with his father. The connections are well developed and make for a well crafted novel.
This novel is intense and recommended to those readers who are prepared to go to the depths of despair with characters before pulling themselves out, who like male narrators falling for girls, who show them how to be better, and who appreciate that mental illness is not always something to be cured.
Copy was provide by publisher, via Netgalley and read with thanks. In Sight of Stars will be out (in the US) on March 13.
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