[CSL]≡ Read Somewhere In Between Katie Li Books

Somewhere In Between Katie Li Books

Download As PDF : Somewhere In Between Katie Li Books

Somewhere In Between Katie Li Books

I should preface by saying that I am not a fan of magical realism. I am a very straight-forward, factual type person. It's just how my brain works.

I should also say I read this book through Kindle apps on different devices and each one seemed to format the book in a different way, therefore, the cool formatting the author describes in the foreward did not really work in my devices, leading to much confusion and flipping back and forth to detect the subtlest of hints at time change. I highly recommend you read this in paperback form.

Here we go. I really love the author's attention to detail. There are so many subtle moments that hold importance in both the past and the present. Many of these details also come back in the finale. Pay attention as you read. No skimming!

The author has a deep connection with her characters and their conversations are thoroughly enjoyable to read. Magnolia brings up some interesting topics, like her view on time having physical form.

There is a very important explanation in the summary of the book, which I missed and would have been extremely helpful had it appeared somewhere in the book itself. I only discovered it after having finished. It says, "What they don’t realize is that every time they enter, they alter reality." I feel like I need to reread the book with this in mind. I never noticed things changing when they stepped out of the in-between place until the extremely altered world-state near the ending.

While this book is short, I think it is the perfect length for the story it is trying to tell.

The author references Anime and Haruki Murakami as influences, but I also see Gabriel García Márquez and magical realism here. If you love this book, I highly recommend you read Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.


Tags : Amazon.com: Somewhere In Between (9780996602006): Katie Li: Books,Katie Li,Somewhere In Between,Kung Fu Girl Books,0996602003,Teens Fiction,Children's BooksAll Ages,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Emotions & Feelings,Juvenile Fiction Social Issues Emotions & Feelings,Juvenile Fiction : Paranormal,Juvenile Fiction : Social Issues - New Experience,Juvenile FictionParanormal, Occult & Supernatural,Juvenile FictionSocial Themes - New Experience,Paranormal,Social Themes - Emotions & Feelings,Social Themes - New Experience,JUVENILE FICTION Social Issues New Experience

Somewhere In Between Katie Li Books Reviews

Haven't finished reading yet, but so far so good!
A creative and interesting book. One that makes the reader think and feel. The imagery is on point.
A lovely coming of age tale with beautiful language, character, and imagery. Packed with detail, the plot could easily have filled a much longer story.
This book was very original and transcending--it enabled readers to embark on a magical journey that was both whimsical and scary. The main characters were believable and readers could relate to them. This book is definitely for the daydreamer in all of us! Hope to hear more from Katie Li!!!
Somewhere In Between is both fantastical and utterly tangible, capturing and narrating the surreality of young love. An exemplification of magical realism, the environment is depicted with such detail and clarity that you forget you’re reading a book and feel like you’re immersed in another world. Characters’ inner realities become their literal realities and as sci-fi as that seems, Somewhere In Between is a healthy reminder that the reader’s reality sometimes functions similarly. A very thought provoking and touching read, highly recommended.
This book isn't for everyone, but it does what only an indie author can—write a story that is so amazing publishers can't publish it. If you like writers like Haruki Murakami, then you'll enjoy Katie Li's YA surrealist novel. The story jumps around in time, the main characters meeting in "the other place" that slowly starts to creep into their real world and timeline.
This is one reminded me of China Mieville - you are either willing to go with it and be okay with ambiguity or not because the book may be about the actual characters and actions/plot or it may entirely be a metaphor for something else and you may never know which. Or maybe it's both. Or neither. The story is lyrical, beautiful, heart breaking. It says a lot with very few words, written in stark, spare, lyrical prose that wonderfully captures loss, depression, anxiety, and yearning. I couldn't put it down and devoured it in two days. It's been a while since a book had that effect on me.

On the down side, I'm not sure the story held together. The epilogue/last two pages will leave the reader scratching their head, wondering what just happened/what it all means (and possibly even - then who was telling this story/who is the narrator of the story given the epilogue?).

The book uses a formatting trick - adjusting the text alignment - to indicate if the story is taking place in the past or the present, which is told to the reader up front on the first page. And throughout the book I wondered why the author choose to do this, when it was pretty clear from the text when the story was taking place and also 99% of other authors who use flashbacks manage to do just fine without this sort of visual clue and it's not until the last page that you find out why (possible spoiler because it turns out there is a possible third time period - the actual present day - and the story told in "present day" might actually be the recent past or a possible alternate future or possibly a dream or all imagined or... ???? It's not really clear). However, I completely missed the visual clue in the alignment of the epilogue and only noticed it when reading someone else's review, so I feel a little annoyed as a reader that the entire crux of understanding the story rests on such a subtle, easy to miss visual cue, instead of the actual text of the story. It feels a bit like gimmicky.

The book/author also changes the font to indicate "something unusual is happening" (told to the reader up front on the first page) but the change in the font is subtle in ebook (kindle app for ipad) and so it was hard to notice whenever this happened and also it didn't seem necessary - it was pretty clear when reality started breaking down and weird stuff was happening.

Overall, if the story had ended before the last page this would have been a 10 star rating from me. The last page/the epilogue, however, didn't make much sense to me/kind of undid the story for me. Then I thought about it and while I still don't like that epilogue and what it seems to be saying about the story overall, I think I understand more what the author was trying to say/what the epilogue mans. Maybe?

Overall, despite my nitpicky gripes about the formatting tricks and the ambiguous/confusing epilogue, I really loved this story and the deftness with which Li told it. If you like the storytelling style of China Mieville or Shirley Jackson, you will like this story.
I should preface by saying that I am not a fan of magical realism. I am a very straight-forward, factual type person. It's just how my brain works.

I should also say I read this book through apps on different devices and each one seemed to format the book in a different way, therefore, the cool formatting the author describes in the foreward did not really work in my devices, leading to much confusion and flipping back and forth to detect the subtlest of hints at time change. I highly recommend you read this in paperback form.

Here we go. I really love the author's attention to detail. There are so many subtle moments that hold importance in both the past and the present. Many of these details also come back in the finale. Pay attention as you read. No skimming!

The author has a deep connection with her characters and their conversations are thoroughly enjoyable to read. Magnolia brings up some interesting topics, like her view on time having physical form.

There is a very important explanation in the summary of the book, which I missed and would have been extremely helpful had it appeared somewhere in the book itself. I only discovered it after having finished. It says, "What they don’t realize is that every time they enter, they alter reality." I feel like I need to reread the book with this in mind. I never noticed things changing when they stepped out of the in-between place until the extremely altered world-state near the ending.

While this book is short, I think it is the perfect length for the story it is trying to tell.

The author references Anime and Haruki Murakami as influences, but I also see Gabriel García Márquez and magical realism here. If you love this book, I highly recommend you read Bone Gap by Laura Ruby.