Because You'll Never Meet Me
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A William C. Morris YA Debut Award finalist
A Carnegie Award nominee
Ollie and Moritz are best friends, but they can never meet. Ollie has a life-threatening allergy to electricity, and Moritz's weak heart requires a pacemaker. If they ever did meet, they could both die. Living as recluses from society, the boys develop a fierce bond through letters that become a lifeline during dark times--as Ollie loses his only friend, Liz, to the normalcy of high school and Moritz deals with a bully set on destroying him. But when Moritz reveals the key to their shared, sinister past that began years ago in a mysterious German laboratory, their friendship faces a test neither one of them expected.
Narrated in letter form by Ollie and Moritz--two extraordinary new voices--this story of impossible friendship and hope under strange circumstances blends elements of science fiction with coming of age themes, in a humorous, dark, and ultimately inspiring tale is completely unforgettable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two teenage boys separated by geography and unusual disabilities forge an unlikely friendship in this epistolary story from debut author Thomas. Verbose and energetic, Ollie lives as a hermit: encountering electricity triggers his epileptic fits. Moritz is a humorless German boy born with no eyes, a weak heart that requires a pacemaker, and a superhuman ability to use echolocation to see. The two may be eccentric outcasts, but their conflicts, heartbreak, and eventual bond form a relatable and engaging narrative despite their farfetched backstories. Most of the time the setup works, although the boys penchant for writing lengthy direct quotations from other conversations can stretch the bounds of an already improbable story. The dual plots coalesce like yin and yang, a roller coaster of role reversals that sees both boys struggling with typical teenage problems in an absurdist landscape. While Ollie is closed off from the world and longs to see mundane things like a humidifier, Moritz has seen and knows too much. The two inevitably (and rewardingly) balance each other out as their first real friends. Ages 14 up.
