We Contain Multitudes

Posted on 03 September 2017 by Sarah Henstra

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe meets I ll Give You the Sun in an exhilarating and emotional novel about the growing relationship between two teen boys, told through the letters they write to one another.Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam Kurl Kurlansky are partnered in English class, writing letters to one another in a weekly pen pal assignment With each letter, the two begin to develop a friendship that eventually grows into love But with homophobia, bullying, and devastating family secrets, Jonathan and Kurl struggle to overcome their conflicts and hold onto their relationshipand each other.This rare and special novel celebrates love and life with engaging characters and stunning language, making it perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, Nina LaCour, and David Levithan. Read We Contain Multitudes – kino-fada.fr 2019 is the first year where I think that I won t be able to keep up with all the promising lgbt releases and that makes me want to cryThis book, to borrow a phrase from one of the main characters, utterly undid me We Contain Multitudes was exactly what I hoped it would be a gorgeously moving, beautifully told, thought provoking story of friendship, love, truth, and secrets I read most of this on a plane ride and it was the first of two books I read that had me in tears, which is always a condition I try to avoid on airplanes Adam Kurl Kurlansky is a football player repeating his senior year of high school, a quiet gian This book, to borrow a phrase from one of the main characters, utterly undid me We Contain Multitudes was exactly what I hoped it would be a gorgeously moving, beautifully told, thought provoking story of friendship, love, truth, and secrets I read most of this on a plane ride and it was the first of two books I read that had me in tears, which is always a condition I try to avoid on airplanes Adam Kurl Kurlansky is a football player repeating his senior year of high school, a quiet giant with a bit of a penchant for fighting As part of an assignment for English class, he is paired with Jonathan Hopkirk, a quirky, fiercely intelligent sopho with a passion for Walt Whitman s poetry, who is bullied nearly every day at school because of his sexuality and his desire to dress as if he were living in Whitman s day.Kurl and Jonathan are expected to write each other letters once a week The two couldn t have less in common at the outset Jonathan knows nothing about football and has form...My face when I finished this book truly looked like this 1 and a half stars, baby What an honor it is to this book that it s the first book I ve rated under 3 stars this year First of all, I want to say that this book is just written really beautifully This is pretty much the only pro I could pull so many quotes from it, and I think a lot of people could read them and think they were beautiful as well There were some moments while I was reading where I just thought, Wow Okay, at some s My face when I finished this book truly looked like this 1 and a half stars, baby What an honor it is to this book that it s the first book I ve rated under 3 stars this year First of all, I want to say that this book is just written really beautifully This is pretty much the only pro I could pull so many quotes from it, and I think a lot of people could read them and think they were beautiful as well There were some moments while I was reading where I just thought, Wow Okay, at some sentences, because the writing was just that pretty The whole time the band played I kept sneaking looks at you, Jo, and thinking How could I be unhappy I mean how could anybody be unhappy And also How is anybody supposed to hide happiness like thisOf course, a 15 year old boy would not be writing that sophisticatedly I promise you, as a teenager and writer myself, I don t even write like that It s really not re...2019 is rocking with all these new gay releasesPoetry s like that, Kurl slippery and coy It means different things to different people You know how sometimes you ll read a book And it s objectively beautiful Like, if you were to scientifically analyze the book, and place all its pieces side by side on a table, you d agree that yes, this is technically beautiful It has all the right parts It says all the right things.AND THIS ANALYSIS ONLY MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE A STONE COLD MONSTER WHO CANNOT LOVE That was me I felt no emotion aPoetry s like that, Kurl slippery and coy It means different things to different people You know how sometimes you ll read a book And it s objectively beautiful Like, if you were to scientifically analyze the book, and place all its pieces side by side on a table, you d agree that yes, this is technically beautiful It has all the right parts It says all the right things.AND THIS ANALYSIS ONLY MAKES YOU FEEL LIKE A STONE COLD MONSTER WHO CANNOT LOVE That was me I felt no emotion at all for these characters Except outrage at myself, because this was supposed to be like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and yet here I am, not feeling my golden holy Ari and Dante vibes Please just return me to the store, I m defectiveWhat is this book aboutThis book was about two boys, Kurl and Jo, who are pen pals who attend the same school because they re pen pals for a writing assignment, not for some normal reason like, they re separated by some physical distance which would have been amazingT...We ve all come across a book so wonderful, you re utterly transfixed and absorbed in every possible way Those few moments you look up from the pages are done so with dreary eyes reality seems secondary to what you ve just experienced We Contain Multitudes is beautiful in its simplicity We are shown a love story between two boys, their journey of heart and healing through letters When Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam Kurlansky are paired up for a class writing assignment, they didn t know what to ex We ve all come across a book so wonderful, you re utterly transfixed and absorbed in every possible way Those few moments you look up from the pages are done so with dreary eyes reality seems secondary to what you ve just experienced We Contain Multitudes is beautiful in its simplicity We are shown a love story between two boys, their journey of heart and healing through letters When Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam Kurlansky are paired up for a class writing assignment, they didn t know what to expect Jonathan enjoys poetry, and doesn t have any friends in school Adam is a football star, though he prefers to avoid socializing with other students Through weekly letters to each other, the boys begin finding friendship amidst their differences Eventually, things blossom in...DNF at 90 pagesThe problem with a 100% epistolary novel is when your protagonists exist in the same space, in this case a high school, and you want them to have dialogue and face to face interactions So you decide to have the penpals literally recounting situations the other was present for When you brought in the groceries, you said this, she said that, this happened next. it makes no actual fucking sense to write a letter to someone this way The person was there I don t want someone giv DNF at 90 pagesThe problem with a 100% epistolary novel is when your protagonists exist in the same space, in this case a high school, and you want them to have dialogue and face to face interactions So you decide to have the penpals literally recounting situations the other was present for When you brought in the groceries, you said this, she said that, this happened next. it makes no actual fucking sense to write a letter to someone this way The person was there I don t want someone giving me a play by play on my life That s obnoxious And the author clearly knew this because she covered her ass by saying I know this is weird but I like break...3.5 StarsI had been anticipating this novel since it is Sarah Henstra s first YA book and I must say that I was deeply happy with some things and not so happy with others.Let s start with what I enjoyed I liked the fact that it was all an epistolary novel, it s a very original concept for a YA book and I think it was set up very well I enjoyed seeing the two main characters giving both their points of view on the same matter and also trying to catch up with the letters they sent each other.The 3.5 StarsI had been anticipating this novel since it is Sarah Henstra s first YA book and I must say that I was deeply happy with some things and not so happy with others.Let s start with what I enjoyed I liked the fact that it was all an epistolary novel, it s a very original concept for a YA book and I think it was set up very well I enjoyed seeing the two main characters giving both their points of view on the same matter and also trying to catch up with the letters they sent each other.The prose was definitely beautiful I must admit that I asked myself a question was it a bit too much for two teenagers still in high school Maybe, but in the end I was f...

English
03 September 2017

Sarah Henstra