A World Without You

Starred review from April 25, 2016
Through two gripping and very different narrative voices, Revis (the Across the Universe trilogy) examines a family struggling with a child’s severe mental illness. Bo, whose omnipresent visual delusions have left him believing that he can manipulate time, attends a boarding school for children with “exceptional needs” while his sister, Phoebe, excels socially and academically back at home. “I don’t have the luxury of allowing myself to break,” she reflects, thinking of her parents. “Because if I break, they’ll break too.” Unable to accept that his girlfriend, Sofía, committed suicide, Bo blames himself for trapping her in 1692 Puritan Massachusetts, and focuses relentlessly on saving her. Though striking imagery, Revis conveys the vitality and terror of Bo’s reality: “I stare down at the chaotic, beautiful timestream spreading out in front of me.... Any chance I had of pulling the end of Sofía’s string from the vortex disappears before my eyes.” The siblings’ perspectives capture the family’s daunting emotional, financial, and clinical challenges, conflicted feelings, and growing mutual compassion, creating a story that’s both heartbreaking and hopeful. Ages 12–up. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House.

Narrator P.J. Ochlan impressively portrays the complex disposition of teenager Bo, who suffers from a mental illness that causes him to believe he can travel through time. Ochlan's thunderous voice passionately depicts the anger and frustration that Bo feels as he tries to convince his family and classmates of his delusional belief that his girlfriend, Sofia, is not dead, but just lost in time. Narrator Sarah Naughton creates a genuine voice for Bo's concerned sister, Phoebe, who is trying to understand and support her brother, but also to lead her own life without feeling constant guilt. Listeners will be rapt at this story of a family struggling with the challenges of mental illness, as delivered through the strong and emotional narration of Ochlan and Naughton. M.D. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine