Review: The Thing With Feathers by McCall Hoyle

I kindly received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Ummmm what is this book EXPLAIN PLEASE:

Emilie has epilepsy
- (That means seizures at random times and that’s not pretty)
- (Therefore she is HOMESCHOOLED with a CAPITAL BOLD H)
She also has a seizure dog and OMG MY HEART CAN I HAVE THIS PRECIOUS BABY
On a heavier note, her dad died a few years ago which was obviously devastating and much sadness everywhere
But her mom’s decided she’s going to public school (GASP) and things are scary and confusing with all of these PEOPLE and OOO A CUTE BOY

How’s that for a synopsis?

Yeah, I don’t know either. In any case, when I heard that this book’s main character had epilepsy, I was super intrigued and I had to check it out. (Of course, the beautiful cover didn’t hurt. I mean, look at it. It’s kind of amazingly fabulous in 26 dimensions.) I also believe this is a debut novel so of course that’s super exciting!

Anyhoo, on to my thoughts-

First of all, the epilepsy seemed to be portrayed very well. I couldn’t find any #ownvoices reviews, but from everything I’ve seen, it seems to be very realistic, and from my knowledge of simply being a teenage girl, I thought it was well done. It felt real, it seemed plausible, and it was prevalent in the story in a way that I appreciated. Although don’t get me wrong, this book is more of a contemporary/romance.

Which brings us to Chatham. AKA the love interest. Who was pretty darn ADORABLE and the romance was ADORABLE and AGH. And Chatham was actually 3-dimensional. Which I quite appreciated. He was a sweet guy and I thought the romance made sense in a good way.

Emilie’s relationship with her mom (and reminiscing about her dad) was well-portrayed too. It wasn’t perfect and most definitely not without its bumps and bruises, but they loved each other and it was just GREAT. I love parents being in books. I totally don’t understand how entire books can happen without them. Mine are rather important to me, ya know?

I’m totally beating around the bush here. But basically, I’m just trying to say that Emilie was flawed and her relationships were flawed, but they seemed realistic and HELLO they existed and it was beautiful and lovely and and and so many ands. Much praise for realistic characters that I can RELATE to even though she has EPILEPSY because PERSONALITIES ARE GREAT.

Overall, (and okay I know I’ve said this a bunch of times over) it was just really well done. I related to the characters and the plot and the relationships, and I had a great time reading about them. My main issue with the book was just that it wrapped up a bit too nicely, although, how can I really be mad about that? ‘TWAS PERFECT. Who doesn’t want that??

Sigh. GO READ IT. I am not very eloquent with my words. Or bullet points. Take my word for it. It’s fab. ~3.8 stars from me and MUCH LOVE for all of the beautiful characters!

Have any of you read this book? Plan to? Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear from you! I hope this review wasn’t too rambly… I’m so bad at talking about books I actually LIKE. Who knew. I’m just a ranter. Give me a bad book to review any day. IN ANY CASE. I’ll get out of your hair. HAPPY MID NOVEMBER (and always happy reading)…