Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Review: Release

Release by Patrick Ness
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release Date: September 19th, 2017
Source: Edelweiss
Date Read: 7/23/17 to 7/27/17
288 pages


Adam Thorn doesn’t know it yet, but today will change his life.

Between his religious family, a deeply unpleasant ultimatum from his boss, and his own unrequited love for his sort-of ex, Enzo, it seems as though Adam’s life is falling apart. At least he has two people to keep him sane: his new boyfriend (he does love Linus, doesn’t he?) and his best friend, Angela.

But all day long, old memories and new heartaches come crashing together, throwing Adam’s life into chaos. The bindings of his world are coming untied one by one; yet in spite of everything he has to let go, he may also find freedom in the release.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

I’m kind of not sure what I want to rate this. After talking with Shannon, I realized that I didn’t like this as much as I thought I did? For one, I'm not even sure what to say about this since I had no strong feelings about Release. But at the same time, I’m grateful that it was a quick read.

Release is a story about Adam trying to find “his release” (and there’s the title!), as he has so much pent up angst and overall frustration over…life in general. Because yeah, his life isn't exactly the best. First off, his family is super religious and has "a hard time" loving him as their gay son. Second, his gross supervisor is threatening to fire him, unless Adam agrees to sleep with him. And lastly, Adam doesn’t know if he truly loves his current boyfriend, Linus. This obviously ends up affecting their relationship, as Adam continuously thinks and reflects back on his ex. And of course, as this is the time where high school is about to come to an end and college is just around the corner, people are leaving his life.

So as simple as this all sounds, it's actually not quite that simple.

The chapters in between Adam’s story are a bit...cryptic? And in no direct relation to Adam’s, really. It reminds me of the author's other book, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, where the alternating chapters tell a new story. In this case, I didn't quite fully understand what was going on. It was telling the story of a murdered girl from the same hometown, yet the two stories didn't really connect. However, the overarching theme was definitely still present, and still tied in with the whole "release" theme going on. Though I say this, I found these chapters a bit unnecessary, and as I said before, confusing.

Other than that, I don't have much else to say. I really enjoyed this, yet I feel like I’ve read this same type of story before? I think I just have such high expectations for anything Patrick Ness writes, and this fell a bit below them.

Comments (12)

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"Release is a story about Adam trying to find “his release”"
Sorry, Val. But I laughed way too hard at this haha. xD
Anyways, sounds like you had mixed feelings towards this one, which makes sense. It sounds like a decent premise, but not entirely executed all that well with the confusing parts. I still have to read something by Patrick Ness one of these days!
1 reply · active 395 weeks ago
BUt it's TRUEEE. And you know I can't write as good as you Nick haha.

If you ever do read anything by Patrick Ness, you should just start with the Knife of Never Letting Go. Because I said so.
First, I love that you mentioned me because you didn't want to hear me bitch again 😂 But yeah, agreed. I still don't understand the point of the "other" chapters. Even in the end I was just like.... okay? The story itself about Adam was good for me, but yeah, definitely not my favorite Ness, sadly. Eh, guess they can't all be Chaos Walking 😉
3 replies · active 395 weeks ago
P.S., remember that time I won TKONLG Bookish Games?
You must ALWAYS bring this up huh
LOL you know you were going to if I didn't say anything, you know. AND I DID MENTION YOU IN MY LAST REVIEW I don't even know why you were salty

It really wasn't my favorite either sadly! The Chaos Walking trilogy was just too good.
Hmm at this particular story. I enjoyed one of Ness's books but haven't had a chance to read his more popular ones (the one I read was The Rest of Us Just Live Here, which I rather did end up enjoying). I love how this is an #OwnVoices story about a gay main character - I feel like in regards to YA, there aren't many out there. But sorry you had no real excitement about this one Val. I can see how it can be confusing or just vague at times.

- Aila @ One Way Or An Author
1 reply · active 390 weeks ago
I ended up enjoying The Rest of Us Just Live Here too (if I'm remembering correctly). But yeah I didn't like the two alternating storylines here as much as I did with the former!
I have only read his "A Monster Calls" and loved it so much. Tempted to get this book at some point, because I like the way he writes. I can handle cryptic, I think, and maybe it will make more sense the more we talk about it from time to time? I hope so, because this man writes beautifully.
1 reply · active 390 weeks ago
I hope you get to read it soon then! And yeah I think this was definitely a me thing haha.
I feel like Ness is an acquired taste, because I found The Rest of Us Just Live here good but odd. Yet, there are people who are ga-ga for him. The subject matter of this book has me wanting to check this it out, though.
1 reply · active 390 weeks ago
Yes I do find his books (the four I've read lol) odd, but I liked The Knife of Never Letting Go so much, that I just wanted to read everything he's written. Maybe I'll just have to stick with that trilogy...

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