So there's a genre of book about a child protagonist who has one (or many) precocious quirks. And it sounds like it would be too twee to be acceptable, but somehow I'm addicted. And in the same vein as [b:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|1618|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|Mark Haddon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327882682s/1618.jpg|4259809] and [b:The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet|6065179|The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet|Reif Larsen|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347685924s/6065179.jpg|6054277] we have 100 Sideways Miles. Finn Easton measures time in the distance the Earth has traveled in its orbit (20 miles/second), makes frequent references to the Knackery, and refers to his seizures as "blanking out." And he is so real and so endearing that it never feels twee.

The central premise of the book is one giant metaphor for coming of age: Finn's father, the famous writer Michael Easton, wrote a book about aliens that come to Earth through Lazarus Doors and used Finn's name for the protagonist, as well as several of his physical characteristics (his :|: scar from when a horse landed on him, his heterochromia) and personality quirks. Only these aliens are Not Human. Finn is not sure whether he is a real person or just an alien from his father's book -- and on a greater level is trying to figure out whether he's normal and how he fits into the world. I'm a sucker for a coming of age story, and this one is done well. (For no good reason, a huge network in my hippocampus is dedicated to recognizing Night Journey stories -- a coming of age genre made up by my high school English class that doesn't exist in the real world.)

Finally, it's worth noting that there are few books that allow characters of color to have a narrative of their own that doesn't revolve around their ethnicity. Julia Bishop is a refreshing counterpoint as a character of color, who's allowed to develop her own personality and her own story. ( )

CW: Death of mother after horse fall on her. He has seizures and contemplates suicide. Lots of swearing and sexual references. Alien raping Christians in his father's novel. His girlfriend had been raped by former boyfriend. ( )

I want to give this book a 3.5. It was a good book that deserves better than a 3, but also I don’t think it wowed me enough to get a 4. It was a fun story with memorable characters (especially Cade, that boy was a trip and I love him). I’m a huge sucker for great literary friendships and I really did adore the one between Finn and Cade. They were obviously close and cared about each other and really we just need more friendships between male characters. It was surprisingly funny at times and more thought provoking than I expected. I can’t remember the last time I dwelled so much about our place in the universe and the atoms that make us us.
The pacing of the book was decent though it did feel like the author repeated some of the same ideas a bit too often and seemed to paraphrase what he’d said previously. Story wise it did seem a little meandering at times, but really isn’t that how life is? Just events and pieces leading to an end? And this is a story about a boy realizing that he actually isn’t just a character from his father’s book so it fits. ( )

A classic coming-of-age tale of aliens, boners and pizza. It's mire than slightly weird and a little bit wound too tightly around itself, but any minor flaws are more than made up for with the most entertaining sidekick this side of a Marvel comic.

You'll get some of the standard stuff (love, relationships, teenagers being unreasonably angry) along with a heaping helping of Weird (time measured in distance the Earth has travelled in the universe, a horse falling off a bridge, etc.). Recommended for anyone who's not offended by swearing and has a sneaking suspicion they live inside a book. ( )

Finn doesn't remember much of his early childhood. His mom was killed and his back was broken when they were hit by a falling horse. I know it sounds weird, but Finn explains it rather well. He looks at the world through miles rather than minutes and this colors this whole story. I enjoyed it and had some laugh out loud moments, but there were also times when I got bogged down by Finn's need to fill us in with what seem like extraneous history lessons, or excessive trivia. These inserts fit in well with the story and others may like them better than I did. It's a good book in a sea of dystopians right now. I'd give it 3.5 stars actually. ( )