I liked the format of the book but just didn’t like the main character very much for how she left her brother high and dry. Thought that was really selfish

I always really enjoy David Levithan’s collaborations and this is no exception. Using the epistolary format works particularly well to tell the story of Bea and Ezra, two siblings separated after Bea runs away without leaving a trace. While I wouldn’t call Bea necessarily an unreliable narrator as she doesn’t technically withdraw information, I did really enjoy the way the reader learns about their family life, their childhood and their relationships with others gradually, as Bea drops snippets every now and again in emails to her brother. What I love most about this book is the bond between brother and sister at the heart of the narrative. It is still quite unusual for a book aimed at teenagers and while there are boyfriends on the scene, the focus always remains on the tight bond and deep love that link Bea and Ezra.

Descriptions of the home situation and abuse are handled with empathy by the authors but is nonetheless harrowing at times, and I think will definitely warrant a content warning message in school settings.

A beautifully written story about the family we're born into, the family we choose and how perspective alters our experience and how you cope. The story is told via an email exchange between Bea and Ezra, siblings who are living with the consequences of choices made by themselves and other people. The voices of the Bea and Ezra are distinct and the narrative is compelling.

Jennifer Niven is one of my favourite authors. Her books got me back into reading as a teenager so I always have a soft spot for her writing and her stories. David Levithan is an author I’ve enjoyed for a long time now. He is one of those authors I know I can rely on for a good story and an author whose books I will always pick up. So, when I found they were co-authoring a book together I was so excited. The minute that I had the chance to read this book, I did just that!

I adored this book, it’s characters and the story that it has to tell. I loved how the entire story was told in a series of emails. It made for a very unique storytelling experience. I enjoyed how the emails gave us little snippets into the lives of Bea and Ezra and kept the story at a fast-pace. I did have some fears going into this book that due to it being told through emails we would not get the real emotions of the characters but that really was not the case. All emotions came across excellently and although it was a tough book to read in parts, due to the underlying themes, I would highly recommend it.

One of my favourite things about this book is that it is a story of siblinghood above anything else. There is not enough books out there that just tell a story of siblings so this filled my need for exactly that. We see Bea who has run away from her broken home, leaving behind only a secret email address she is using to communicate with Ezra, her younger brother. Ezra is left at home to deal with the fall out from Bea running away alongside his own issues. It was lovely to see the pair find solace in one another even though they are miles apart. I found both Ezra and Bea endearing. We get to feel their pain, their strengths, their vulnerabilities and their journeys to healing.

The characters in this book are dealing with a lot of things in their home life which can be difficult to read at times. It deals with child abuse, emotional and physical abuse and it deals with this in an open, honest and raw way. Please be aware of the trigger warnings before reading this book. Jennifer and David write these difficult topics in such an extraordinary, sensitive and respectful way.

The found family aspect of this book left me feeling a lot of hope. We get to see that even though Bea and Ezra are having difficulties with their own family, their found families are looking out for them, caring for them and giving them the love that they truly deserve. It left me feeling hopeful and happy after quite a harrowing read.

Overall, Take Me With You When You Go is a beautiful, raw and thought-provoking read that I thoroughly enjoyed. David and Jennifer write beautifully together and I would love to see more books co-authored by them in the future. This is a story of sibling love, a story of self-love and a story of hope that I would highly recommend!

I have mixed feelings about this book. Even though it was an easy to read tale with dark themes on child abuse, familial expectations and self-doubt. I found the format uncomfortable. The entire interaction of characters especially Bea and Ez took place in a series of emails. Told via two points of view: Bea and Ezra, we are taken on an emotional rollercoaster as we discover an empty room where a sister once lived and the apathetic reaction of her mum and stepfather.

It is quickly established through the panicked and frantic emails to his sister that Ezra is hurt, angry and feeling abandoned by the one person who has always been his constant. As their conversations unfurl you can't help but fall in love with these broken individuals. Bea is spunky and brave even when she feels her world crumbling around her, and Ezra is emotional, relatable and wise beyond his years. Together, they were strong but apart they learn how to stand on their own two feet and that despite their heartbreaking situation discover who they are as individuals and how they can go forth and flourish.

I was heartbroken when I read about the abuse Bea and Ezra experienced at the hands of their stepfather, but what made it worse was knowing that their mother ignored their pain and suffering. You may think that Anne Ahern's personality and apathy are dramatised for effect but, it's all too more common than some people realise. There are hundreds of young children and teenagers who live every day with parents and caregivers who treat them as an inconvenience "who should be grateful" that the adult/s in their lives allows them to live in "their house".

As, a survivor of a Narcissistic parent, I understand and can very much relate to Bea and Ezra. Even now, after over eleven years of being free from, said parent, I am still struggling with the effects of their behaviour. I know, the issue lies with them, but sometimes it's hard to escape the memories.

This was the reason why I requested this book. I wanted to see how the topic of child abuse was handled by David Levithan and Jennifer Nevin. I was pleased that they handled it carefully, honestly and didn't sugarcoat anything. I just wish they'd gone with a different format. The e-mail interactions just weren't for me. The story was great. The characters had substance and the message was uplifting and bittersweet.


I would very much like to read more from these authors and hope they continue to collaborate in the future.

I really wanted to love this one as it is by two phenomenal authors. Formatted as emails, this story is between siblings and their conversation after the elder sister, Bea, runs away from home only weeks before her high school graduation. Ezra, the gay younger brother, battles with his step father who is verbally and physically abusive and gets the backlash of her escape.

I really didn’t like the formatting of the emails. To me it felt like the readers were only receiving surface level insight into the characters lives and it made me unable to connect with the characters or plot as deep as I usually do. I feel like the strong themes of domestic abuse was dealt with pretty well however I just couldn’t fathom why the sister would allow her brother to be treated like that or rush home when all hell broke loose.

To be honest I didn’t particularly like the plot. Im not entirely sure why, I think probably the formatting highly contributes to this but I also just felt a bit meh after finishing this

This is so cleverly written! The format is a series of emails between a brother and a sister. The sister has runaway from home and has ended all communication with the people in her life, except her brother. She's left behind an email address for him to use to talk to her. While she writes about her new life, her brother Ezra is left to pick up the shattered pieces Bea has left behind .

The struggles these children face are heart breaking and I found the I was addicted from the very first email. The format style made this a surprisingly easy read. I absolutely loved the journey and development of Ez. It was hard not to want to route for him, at times I really wished I could give him a massive hug and tell him it was going to be okay. Surprisingly, I also liked the development of Bea. Initially she's very hard to like, however through the book you see her slowly bringing her walls down and showing her vulnerability which makes for her to be such a great character. Especially when the reader can see how difficult her life was at home.

It saddens me how let down they have been by the adults around them who could and should have done more. But ultimately this is a beautiful story about the unbreakable bond of siblings.

Telling the story of an abusive mother and stepfather via emails between a brother and sister this is both touching and heartbreaking. When Bea suddenly disappears all she leaves behind is an email address for her brother to find and the story develops as each pours out their heart to the other.

Jennifer Niven is a favourite YA author of mine so I knew there would be deep emotion, always my favourite part of YA novels and this didn't disappoint. The abuse from the mother came in the form of emotional neglect and lack of love which is beautifully portrayed when they see how other children interact with their parents. The physical abuse from the stepfather is probably more straightforward but no less difficult to read about.

One paragraph towards the end of the book really stood out for me, it's addressed to the VP of Bea's school and sums up the hope that lessons will be learned from the hard experience of these siblings.

"One last thing. If you had your suspicions that trouble existed at home—which apparently you did—Ezra and I would have appreciated your support. We can’t be the only students you’ve ever met with rotten parents and rotten home lives, but hopefully next time you’ll trust your instincts and press harder, dig deeper, and refuse to give up until you find out what’s really going on."

Take Me With You When You Go - David Levithan; Jennifer Niven👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏼

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🦦I recommend this book if you like YA and basically if you’ve read any of Levithan or Nivens previous work you will love this🦦
(Side note; if you haven’t read any of their previous books then Errm why?!)

The way this was written was absolutely stunning and made me absolutely fly through it.

The book is written as emails between Bea and her brother Ezra. So there’s no ‘chapters’ but rather just split up by the emails to and from.

They haven’t had an easy up bringing and one day Bea decides she’s had enough and runs away. She runs away without telling anyone, not even her brother.

When Ezra finds an email address hidden where he keeps his money (that Bea stole) he emails it and hopes she replies.

She does.

The story unravels from there and the character development is incredible and you can’t help but just want the best for them.

Another outstanding book by these iconic authors.

Thank you to @netgalley for this ARC. Release date is the 31st August 2021.

#TakeMeWithYouWhenYouGo #NetGalley.

CW; child abuse, emotional and physical abuse.

The plot of this story sounded really interesting and I liked the way it was set out in E-mail form which was unusual, however i thought the story got a little repetitive the further on I got and I was a little bored. The story deals with neglect and child abuse and deals with these themes really well and truly captures the feelings and thoughts of the main characters.
The reader is taken on a journey of the characters finding their footing in their world that has been turned upside down and rediscovering their own self worth which has been pushed down over the years due to the abuse suffered from the step father.
I liked Ezra more than Bea, although I can understand why she did what she did. I was rooting for them both the whole way through, hoping they would find happiness and believe in themselves once more.
A touching book with lots of heat break and trauma but also finds the light at the end of the tunnel too.

Wow what a gripping read!!!! I was hooked from the start and couldn’t put it down!!! I love the writing style and think it steers the book along brilliantly

I’m a big fan of these authors so it’s been one of my most anticipated reads of the year! Getting to read this before the release was so exciting, and I’m really grateful.

Jennifer niven and David levithan work so well together, they’ve created a masterpiece of a book with a addictive plot and great characters.
The writing is just incredible, it so well written! The characters have so much depth to them and the story is so addictive. I stayed up till 2am just to finish it as I couldn’t put it down. I got that feeling where you want finish a book but at the same time you don’t as you don’t want it to end. I very highly recommend.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for this eARC of "Take Me With You When You Go" by David Levithan and Jennifer Niven. This review is purely my own opinion.

Jennifer Niven raised me with her talent as a child and David Levithan wrote one of my comfort reads. This collaboration was spectacular and I would absolutely love it if this collaboration occurred again in the future. This book felt so real to me and every character was so natural and had depth to them. Overall, I loved this story and the way it was formatted.

Siblinghood
The thing that I love about this book is that it is a sibling story above anything else. Bea has run away from her broken home, leaving behind only a secret email address to communicate with Ezra, her younger brother. The siblings have always had each other for solace when their home doesn’t feel safe, and that doesn’t change.
We learn about the entirety of their relationship from these emails, starting from the day Bea disappears. They exchange memories from growing up, more recent events that triggered Bea to leave, and she eventually finds out about events that occurred before Ezra was even born.
To me, a lot of this background information felt forced as I was caught up in what would realistically be written in an email. I understand why the authors chose this format as it makes the most logistical sense for the plot, but the infodumping written beneath an email address didn’t really work for me personally and quickly felt tiresome. It also removes a lot of the emotion from the moments that are being described as the characters are looking back on them with less connection. It made the side characters extremely disconnected from the story and two dimensional. I wanted to be with the characters rather than dwelling in their memories.
This point is specifically about Ezra rather than the theme of siblinghood but I’ve already committed to this format and don’t know where else to put it. I like that Ezra’s sexuality isn’t the focal point of the book. He’s gay, and there’s moments where he reflects on his first kiss and the realisation about his sexuality, and the book shows his relationship with his boyfriend, but the focus still remains on the siblings’ relationship and their home.

Finding Your Home
This book is an incredibly raw and honest portrait of parental abuse inflicted on the lives of the people they were supposed to keep safe. When Bea disappears, Ezra is left behind to deal with the fallout in addition to the regular emotional abuse he is experiencing.
As the abuse becomes increasingly physical, Ezra seeks an escape through Joe – Bea’s ex(?) boyfriend who is worried about her – and his boyfriend Terrence, who I believe is black and Christian. This book explores the dynamics of these new homes very well: refuge with someone who is almost doing it as a favour to someone they love, and safety with someone who is your found family. There’s also some scenes I adore where Terrence has to admit that Ezra is more than just his ‘special friend’, and how Ezra has to adapt to being part of Terrence’s family.

Hope
This is the part that has left me with so many mixed feelings about this book. In my opinion, there is very little hope until the final few pages when the book feels as if it has reached its conclusion. I almost wanted an epilogue that carried out some of the promises written in the final emails, but I don’t think it would make sense written in this format.
This lack of hope throughout the book dulled the impact of the emotional scenes: it’s very easy to become either overwhelmed or underwhelmed (or, in my case, both) with emotional scenes when they’re constant and there’s no lighter scenes to contrast or complement them. In many places, it felt like the story was dragging and wasn’t really going anywhere. The plot twists and big reveals and climaxes all felt the same as the siblings recounting the bland parts of their day.

Overall, I would give this book a 3.5 star rating. There were a lot of moments that caught my attention, but they were eventually overshadowed by a tiresome format and darkness that completely swallowed up the light.

Initial thoughts:

I loved take me with you when you go. It was a deep, emotional read that fully embraced the concept of “you never know what somebody else is going through”. It served as a reminder to always treat others with kindness as you never know their situation.
Having the entire story told through emails was a really cool concept, and it was nice that some of the chapters were shorter as it kept the story moving along at a quick pace. Going in, I was concerned that I wouldn’t really feel the character’s emotions if it was all through emails, but that wasn’t the case at all.
It was a difficult book to read in places due to the underlying theme, it was incredibly raw and real. Please be sure to read the trigger warnings before reading <3

The author pairing was absolutely perfect - Bea and Ezra were very different characters with very different voices, yet their connection and love for each other came across throughout.
My only critique, as such, was that sometimes the emails were a bit too rambling, or a bit too specific (i.e. quoting page long conversations perfectly from memory). Those chapters felt like they would have been better as a character’s narrative, but I do understand the need for them to be in email form.

Full Review:

Overall: 5/5
Overall, this book was incredible. The book was emotional, inspiring and hopeful, despite the hardships faced by the characters. I liked that the ending was relatively open. Not everything was wrapped perfectly into a pretty bow, which I appreciated. Real life can be messy and hard, and not everything has a perfect solution, or can be resolved straight away.

Plot: 5/5
The plot was well thought out and executed. Bea and Ezra both go on their own journeys of self-discovery, and work to get away from their abusive family. They take different approaches to this, which makes sense for their characters. The plot was always interesting, and something new was always happening which made me want to keep reading.

Characters: 5/5
I must say that Bea was my favourite character, which surprised me because I didn’t really like her at first. Over time, her motives became clear and I found myself rooting for her. Bea and Ezra both had incredibly difficult childhoods, and they both realised that that was an explanation, not an excuse, for their mistakes. Both characters grew and became inspirational figures that I just wanted the best for.

Writing: 5/5
The writing style was beautiful, from both authors. I’ve been a fan of Jennifer Niven for a long time, but I don’t think I’ve ever read anything from David Levithan. Reading this book makes me want to read more by them. The way they explore the characters and the story is impactful and deep, and truly engaging.

Jennifer Niven and David Levithan are 2 authors I have a lot of respect for so when I saw they were writing a book together, I was very exciting and prepared to have my heart broken. Take Me With You When You Go was exactly what I hoped for and more.

This book tells the story of Bea (18) and Ezra (15), a brother and sister living in an abusive household with their mother and stepfather. Bea runs away, without telling anyone her plans, she just leaves an email address for her brother to contact her on, a brother left in that suffocating house. Through emails we follow both characters as they try get through their days, heal and find themselves.

Bea and Ezra are extraordinary characters that I quickly grew to love, particularly Bea who is so lost and broken. Bea feels like a failure, a burden, she’s self destructive as a form of protection and you relate to her struggle easily. Ezra too, he’s lost his ally in the family home, he’s struggling to deal with it all by himself and over the book learns that he doesn’t have to do it alone. I did cry reading this book because I found both characters so endearing, you feel their pain, their vulnerabilities, their strength and their journeys to healing. You root for these teenagers who have been raised to only see the worst.
This is a love story, a story of sibling love, a story of the journey to self love, it’s a story about hope and taking your power back.

The writing style might not be for everyone, but that is the same for any book. For me I found the email format, of which this book is 100% written in, worked well. For a lot of this book Bea and Ezra feel like they only have each other, and on page they only talk to each other (despite recalling stories and events they’re experiencing apart). The constant conversation held by emails back and forth created a world of just these 2 characters, which is often how they feel, a safe world of just each other, they come ‘home’ to each other in each email, and this intimacy and containment felt like you were peering into their world. These emails act as chapters and they are detailed and personal and very easy to read.

I do want to say that I hope the final copy of this novel has a trigger warning as I can imagine the subject of abuse will be triggering for some, although I do appreciate the contact information at the end. I didn’t find the abuse gratuitous and found it was handled respectfully.

Thank you so much NetGalley for the early copy to review. I’m really glad I got to know Bea and Ezra