The Art of Feeling

by Laura Tims

Overview

For fans of Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places and Meg Wolitzer’s Belzhar comes an emotionally thrilling tale of a friendship between a girl who feels too much and a boy who feels too little, as they discover that maybe pain can bring people together and not just tear them apart.

Samantha Herring has been in constant pain ever since the car accident that injured her leg and killed her mother. After pushing her friends away, Sam has receded into a fog of depression until she meets Eliot, a carefree, impulsive loner who, is unable to feel any pain at all. At first, Sam is jealous. She would give anything to not feel the pain she’s felt for the past year. But the more she learns about Eliot’s medical condition, the more she notices his self-destructive tendencies.

In fact, Eliot doesn’t seem to care about anything—except Sam. And as they grow closer, they begin to confront Sam’s painful memories of the accident, memories that hold a startling truth about what really happened that day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062317353
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	914,248
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

Editorial Reviews

Praise for PLEASE DON’T TELL — ;

“Tims weaves a taut YA thriller...Readers of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) will find this to be a perfect complement.” — Booklist

“As real as it gets, not only with its believable dialogue and diverse cast of characters but also its reflection of the world...teens will find this story easily relatable...mature themes are handled tastefully and appropriately...an excellent debut that will leave readers hungry for more.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

“The twins’ drama accelerates quickly, taking readers down shocking rabbit holes. High-octane drama that thrills.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Suspenseful debut. A compelling mystery. Tims expertly depicts the awkward uncertainties of teen life and the sometimes-blurry line between right and wrong.” — Publishers Weekly

“Addresses classic coming-of-age questions and touches on many important contemporary issues” — School Library Journal

“Funny and absorbing. Wry and engrossing.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Tims’ sophomore book captures the emotions of young characters dealing with loss, pain, and depression. A heartfelt package that many will enjoy.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

As real as it gets, not only with its believable dialogue and diverse cast of characters but also its reflection of the world...teens will find this story easily relatable...mature themes are handled tastefully and appropriately...an excellent debut that will leave readers hungry for more.

Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Tims weaves a taut YA thriller...Readers of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) will find this to be a perfect complement.

Booklist

Praise for PLEASE DON’T TELL

;

Tims weaves a taut YA thriller...Readers of Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) will find this to be a perfect complement.

Booklist

08/01/2017
Gr 9 Up—This novel takes a well-worn but effective page from the handbook of rare disease and disaster YA romances. In this somewhat predictable but ultimately satisfying love story, Samantha—still coping with the death of her mother and the permanent injuries she sustained in a car accident—meets Eliot, who lives with congenital analgesia, a disease which leaves him unable to feel pain. Eliot and Samantha have some serious walls up as a result of their respective traumas, and their friendship-turned-romance seems partially born out of a need to protect someone outside of their own personal tragedies. The relationship is backlit by Eliot's role as the school's number one bullying victim which is perpetrated by resident drug dealer Anthony, a childhood friend of Samantha's who is revealed to have played a key role in her mother's death. Crisis is followed by crisis as the bullying escalates; but with a climactic and teary ending, the walls between the two protagonists start to crumble and healing begins. This novel will satiate the needs of the myriad fans of the box-of-tissues at your side teen drama. VERDICT Purchase where Jennifer Niven's and Nicola Yoon's books are popular.—Joanna Sondheim, Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City

School Library Journal

2017-05-15
Six months after Mom's death in a car accident, Sam copes with a new disability from that accident, a cryptic boy, family dysfunction, and peer violence.Sam walks on crutches now. Pain regularly "whiplashes" up her leg, bringing with it shards of memory from that "firestorm of glass and steel"—the accident she doesn't remember. Her brother gets high and screams back and forth with their perky sister, while checked-out Dad eats junk food. Enter new boy Eliot, all "pale mystery, sharp-cheekboned stares, and supercilious slouching"—and verbal prickliness. Eliot has congenital insensitivity to pain—he feels no physical pain—but he also exhibits social peculiarity (far beyond awkwardness, well into hurtfulness) and emotional wounds; some of Tims' definitions of disability, trauma, and accountability are murky. Likewise with the antagonist: Anthony (a "magazine-blond, Polo-wearing" drug dealer with a Yale scholarship and a "coffee-soft polite threat voice") commits extreme violence wearing an expression of "nothingness" but is also merely "a boy scared of losing his image." Because she didn't save Mom, Sam's determined to save Eliot, however he acts. Her first-person voice is funny and absorbing. In this "upper-middle-class town in the whitest state in the country," whiteness is standard except that Mom was half Hawaiian (a detail that's never explicated). Wry and engrossing, though jumbled. (Fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Reviews