REVIEW: The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

Edition: Text Publishing Paperback
Release Date: August 27th 2014
Pages: 210
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Poetry
Source: Received as an ARC from Text Publishing Australia (Thank you)
Links: Goodreads | Author's Website | Buy the book

One school. Twenty voices. Endless possibilities. There's the girl who is in love with Holden Caulfield. The boy who wants to be strong who falls for the girl who's convinced she needs to be weak. The girl who writes love songs for a girl she can't have. The two boys teetering on the brink of their first anniversary. And everyone in between. As he did in the highly acclaimed Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan gives us a world of unforgettable voices that readers will want to visit again and again. It's the realm of possibility open to us all - where love, joy, and the stories we tell will linger.

Written entirely in verse, The Realm of Possibility was a surprisingly enlightening read. I've never read poetry so this was a really interesting experience, a enjoyable one for sure.

The Realm of Possibility has 20 different narrators each dealing with different things. All of these 20 protagonists attend the same school so occasionally the stories would interact.

You have love interests, enemies and friends and to be honest keeping up with it all was a bit puzzling. But this was mainly because their names were kept at the beginning of the chapter so i'd often be lost as to who was whom. Aside from this though, it was interesting to see how many different personalities were at the school, each with a story to tell.

All of the poems in the book were entertaining but obviously, some I like more than others. I particularly liked one of the stories towards the end of the book which was about a bully who reconsiders her behaviour. I found it really fascinating and I loved seeing the perspectives of the other people involved in the situation.

I doubt that this was the best poetry i'll ever read but seeing as this was a first for me, I found it really thought provoking. At school the first style of poetry (or technique rather) that your introduced to is rhyme. So seeing as not all of these poems rhymed, I loved seeing how mismatched sentences together formed their own rhythm.

Some of the stories as short as they are, were really memorable. I can see myself re-reading some of them in the future. It's so cool how stories so short can have you immediately immersed and invested. It didn't take chapters for me to get a sense of the character in each story or their situation. This was my second David Levithan book and I applaud him for dealing with topics that aren't usually explored in YA, such as same sex relationships. There are also a lot of heavy themes in this book which made for really good stories.

The Realm of Possibility is a really short and easy read that gets your attention from the get go. Thankfully this meant that whilst I was in the middle of a ongoing reading slump, I had no problem flicking through and finishing it quickly.

I'd highly recommend The Realm of Possibility, it's a easy read that's thought provoking and hooking at the same time! Seeing as I want nothing more than to be a writer whose words move people, i'll definitely have to explore poetry a little bit more. The Realm of Possibility is out in Australian stores today, although I believe an edition was published in 2006 (not sure). Happy release day!