Publication: August 10th, 2004
Read: Almost every year since 2008
Format: Digital
Rating: 5 Caffeinated Stars

Summary: 

“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.” – The description is taken from Goodreads.

What I Thought:

It’s become a tradition to read this book every few years because it has had such a profound effect on my life. This book helped me in more ways than I care to admit. My freshman year of college was a hard year for me. I had a group of friends abandon me, my best friend from high school blocked me because I told her my concerns about her boyfriend, and on top of that I was homesick. Everything that could go wrong felt like it did. This book fell into my lap at the perfect moment. A woman who soon became my best friend handed me this book and told me to read it. Her copy was torn, pages were falling out, and the binding was barely together. I took that book to a basketball game that night and I devoured it. This 107-page book changed my life. It made me feel like I wasn’t so alone.

“Being a bitch is easy. It’s finding the alternative that’s hard.”

The Realm of Possibility is filled with quirky writing styles that mimic what you would find in the diary of a high schooler. I loved it. It did take me a while to get used to words not capitalized in some chapters and no punctuation in other chapters. It was unique and beautifully thought out. The quirks in the writing just enhanced how intertwined and connected this book is. You feel like you are genuinely reading 20 different diary entries by 20 different high schoolers. It’s glorious.

“Run outside during a thunderstorm
That downpour, that conquered hesitation, that exhilaration
That’s what unlonely is like”

Each character is unique and complex. David Levithan has a way with creating characters. In just a chapter he makes you feel like they’re some of your closest friends. I know I personally relate to Charlotte & a bit to Cara. I’m not telling you why. You’ll have to read the book to see. The thing that I love the most about this book is that everyone will be able to relate to at least one character. If you’re the popular kid, you will connect to someone. If you’re that kid that is bullied, you will relate to someone. There are 20 different characters, and you will be able to connect to at least one of them.

“I’ve lost track of where friendship ends and falling begins.”

This book quickly became my favorite novel, and David Levithan is now one of my favorite authors. No matter when I read this book, I find something new to fall in love with. I have so many quotes written down from this book, and I cannot wait to see more the next time I read it. I was lucky enough to meet David Levithan when he came into town many years ago, my signed copy of this book is something that I will forever treasure.

“I can’t pretend to know what love is. It just is.”

I will continue to recommend this book to everyone.

This too shall linger…

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