Sign in with Facebook
Maria's Reviews > Above All Else
Above All Else
by
by
2.5/5 stars:
I received an e-ARC of this story through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!
Above All Else is a book, at its heart, about the challenges we face as we grow up and have to live through doing the things we love most and, at the same time, fear most. This book is very heavily centered on climbing and even though I have never been highly invested in the topic I found myself real enjoying learning more about it. I think that people who love climbing or mountain stories will really enjoy this book.
I know that giving this book a 2.5 rating might make it seem like I think this isn't a good book but that isn't it at all. I think this book was simply not for me but I can appreciate the story in itself and the effort put into it and I can see it becoming a favorite book for some people.
Rose and Tate, our main characters, felt very real and flexed-out. We follow them as they train for their summit of Mount Everest and we also learn about their lives before and after this great adventure will be over. If there was one thing I really didn't enjoy about this book it was the romance. I didn't feel compelled to like the two main characters together and I think the romance comes kind of out of nowhere. I think, for me, the book would have had a higher rating if the friendship between Rose and Tate had just stayed a friendship.
Unfortunately, this book has one of my most hated tropes in the history of the world: bilingual person who speaks nothing like a true bilingual person speak. I'm bilingual in both Spanish and English but i the case of the book character we have a man who is French and speaks English throughout the book. I don't know if the author is bilingual or not but the portrayal of bilingualism wasn't accurate at all and it irked me gravely.
As I said before, I have very limited knowledge about climbing but I did know a little about Mount Everest before getting into this book and I really appreciated how some of the problematic aspects of its climb where touched upon in this book. I liked that we had our main characters being aware of their privilege, I like that they question whether or not what they're doing is ethical and I like that we're made aware that climbing Mount Everest isn't just about the climbers and their dreams.
I think, overall, if the premise of this story seems like something you will enjoy you should pick it up. I can see the potential of this story in the hands of people who tend to enjoy YA contemporaries. In the end this book wasn't for me but I can see that it could be a good read for other people.
I received an e-ARC of this story through NetGalley in exchange of an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity!
Above All Else is a book, at its heart, about the challenges we face as we grow up and have to live through doing the things we love most and, at the same time, fear most. This book is very heavily centered on climbing and even though I have never been highly invested in the topic I found myself real enjoying learning more about it. I think that people who love climbing or mountain stories will really enjoy this book.
I know that giving this book a 2.5 rating might make it seem like I think this isn't a good book but that isn't it at all. I think this book was simply not for me but I can appreciate the story in itself and the effort put into it and I can see it becoming a favorite book for some people.
Rose and Tate, our main characters, felt very real and flexed-out. We follow them as they train for their summit of Mount Everest and we also learn about their lives before and after this great adventure will be over. If there was one thing I really didn't enjoy about this book it was the romance. I didn't feel compelled to like the two main characters together and I think the romance comes kind of out of nowhere. I think, for me, the book would have had a higher rating if the friendship between Rose and Tate had just stayed a friendship.
Unfortunately, this book has one of my most hated tropes in the history of the world: bilingual person who speaks nothing like a true bilingual person speak. I'm bilingual in both Spanish and English but i the case of the book character we have a man who is French and speaks English throughout the book. I don't know if the author is bilingual or not but the portrayal of bilingualism wasn't accurate at all and it irked me gravely.
As I said before, I have very limited knowledge about climbing but I did know a little about Mount Everest before getting into this book and I really appreciated how some of the problematic aspects of its climb where touched upon in this book. I liked that we had our main characters being aware of their privilege, I like that they question whether or not what they're doing is ethical and I like that we're made aware that climbing Mount Everest isn't just about the climbers and their dreams.
I think, overall, if the premise of this story seems like something you will enjoy you should pick it up. I can see the potential of this story in the hands of people who tend to enjoy YA contemporaries. In the end this book wasn't for me but I can see that it could be a good read for other people.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Above All Else.
Sign In »
