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A Million Little Snowflakes (2014)

by Logan Byrne(Favorite Author)

3.19 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Logan Byrne

review 1: BiblioJunkie Nat and I have occasional conversations about the impact of religion on our lives and how we perceive it as adults with families of our own which is why A Million Little Snowflakes appealed to me.It’s painfully clear how Oliver’s über-religious mother controls her children. Any wayward move, no matter how innocent, means church counseling. Sometimes even worse. In this particular case, all he does is mention that he’s been feeling depressed lately and she takes him to the pastor who begins to perform an exorcisim on him. Apparently the devil needs to be driven from his body. Oliver views all of this as unhelpful nonsense. At dinner, in a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from his poor SAT results he's been hiding, he blurts out that he wants ... moreto kill himself. It’s absolutely not true and it’s not exactly the brightest thing to say. To deal with this his dad immediately checks him into a psych ward.As bizarre as it is at first, it becomes a mini vacation for him to be away from his stifling household. He’s finally able to think clearly about where he’s at in his life. Getting to know the kids who are in there with him offers him the chance to see that plenty of other kids come from dysfunctional situations as well. Lacey especially captures his attention because she’s the complete opposite of him. She initially despises him but warms up to him as she realizes that she would also like something different.Oliver is remarkably introspective. Instead of seeing his stay at the psych ward as a negative, irrational move on behalf of his parents, he sees it as a mental respite from his home life. He finally has a chance to freely voice his own opinions as when he’s in one-on-one sessions with the psychiatrist. While I didn’t like the automatic prescribing of pills which it didn’t appear that Oliver needed, I did like that he was given the space to think aloud.As a protagonist, Oliver is one of the nice guys. He’s not a rebel, at least not in the normal terms though his church would see it otherwise. He’s simply a teenage boy who wants personal space and the ability to speak for himself. He needs his parents to recognize that and accept him for it. Oliver’s opposition to his mother’s ultra-religious thinking causes a major rift. That is perhaps one of the main points of the story – acceptance. How should acceptance work and on whose terms? And if there are terms, can it truly be considered acceptance?Logan Byrne’s novel undoubtedly gave me plenty to think and he did so without involving too much melodrama. I will say the ending caught me off guard slightly even though I was waiting for something to happen. I gasped and then thought, “Really? That’s how this ends?”. Don’t worry though because it doesn’t take away from how wonderful this story is.~ Bel
review 2: In a conversation about his future, Oliver tells his parents that he wants to kill himself - not because he really does but because he doesn't want to tell them his low SAT scores. His parents reaction is to immediately take him to an in-patient treatment facility. Oliver doesn't feel he is suicidal just a little depressed but once in the treatment facility he is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and given medication. In treatment Oliver meets Lacey and they begin to have a connection. As Oliver works through his week in treatment, he begins to understand better how to cope with his life and finds hope in the future. This novel was disappointing, the narrator's voice does not ring true as an authentic teenage boy, the writing is didactic (with almost every other sentence beginning with "I", and the ending makes you wonder why you even read the book. less

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