I just couldn't get into this book. I think it was a personal preference though. I wouldn't personally recommend this, but only because I wouldn't be able to talk about it.

ncredibly powerful verse about eating disorders, mother/daughter relationships, and the impact of diverse.

Required purchase for middle and high school libraries.

Thank you to Lily Myers, PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, Philomel Books, and NetGalley for this free honest reviewer copy of "This Impossible Light."

This is another piece, like Solo, where poetry felt like it was behind every etching within this work. It was so powerfully, purely, and stylistically an art form that raised far above the prose novels that could be listed as its contemporaries.

I felt like it spoke to a completely different part of my mind and heart, several times lending to me being in tears due to the content about body images, eating disorders, and how we all see out self-worth (especially how these are impacted by our background, our upbringing, and the relationships we have with our mothers and daughter).

A must read for all teenage girls. So many teenage girls and women have a horrible view of the their bodies and society tries to dictate what the perfect form is. Everyone is different, we all have our own problems and no one can judge you before they walk in your shoes. GIrls, especially teens, are pressured from every side to look and act like someone they are not. This novel draws attention to that issue while highlighting the wonder power of being yourself.

I've really enjoyed Lily's poems in the past, taken real comfort in them. But something about the structuring of this, as well as the protagonist - Ivy - herself didn't work for me. I couldn't get into the book and I feel that's a real shame.

I absolutely adored this lovely, thoroughly relatable and realistic book. You don't need to have a broken family or your parents going through divorce to understand and relate to the characters because it explores the breaking of a relationship, which I'm sure everyone has been through - how things that you loved, memories you cherished, turn to something bleak you can't process and push in a corner of your mind where you don't have to be reminded of them, you stop doing the things that were done with those particular people and you think that that would stop the hurting, but in reality, nothing really does. And that is exactly what this book said in the best possible way.

There are so many aspects of the characters that I thoroughly loved and related with - they were all so real, more of real life people than characters in a book. I could connect to them easily because of Myers's capability to take notice of the small everyday things that affect us in ways unfathomable, merge it in the characters, making the readers experience everything down to its very core. The downsides of being a smart kid are explored in depth and anyone who knows me knows I've been there, done that so that part was a treat, because parts where people might roll their eyes were parts that actually happened to me.

The diverse themes were quite possibly the best thing about this book; not only did it deal with a range of family problems, prejudice that one feels towards oneself, inheritance, the complex relationship of parents and a child but body image and eating disorders as well as the effects of crumbling friendships and changing priorities. It simply captivated my attention from the very start to the end. I also loved the way this book was structured; the definitions at the start of every part, the prose into poetry concept and how the feelings that wafted from every word clung to me even after I had long finished reading. I loved everything. Highly recommended!

A touching story told in what I can best describe as a free-form poetic style. The format is very effective as it underscores the way Ivy's life slowly falls apart as she deals with abandonment by her father who leaves the household to live on his own, her mother who sinks into depression, her brother who is away at school, and her best friend who seems to have grown away from her. It seems like a natural progression as she tries to exercise extreme control on the things she can control until she hits a significant low and gets the help she needs from herself and from those around her. .
This was a quick read and an important one for all of us struggling to be perfect, to control our lives, and to just survive in an imperfect world.

Easy to digest because the choice of word is easy to comprehend. The plot, well – there’s something in the plot that pull the gravity.

I started reading the book with a bit of skepticism since I never read a book written in this poetic style. I was drawn into the story very quickly and it was sad and beautiful at the same time. I really enjoyed it and would recommend to everyone.

This book. THIS BOOK!!!
This book totally caught me off guard. Once again it's one of those books that I got from Netgalley, forgot about it and then started reading it without reading the summary again and didn't know what to expect.

The book deals with some tough topics but I think, they are handled really sensitive and respectful. The writing was so damn beautiful. Seriously, some of these moments in Ivy's life were so painful but they were written in the most beautiful way.

Poetry is my new favorite thing but I only ever read books with lots of different poetry, this time it was a whole book, a whole story. And it was beautiful.
It was super easy to get into, I started the book and pretty soon was half way through it. The characters were wonderful and so fleshed out.

Aaaah, I just love this book so much, it made me feel all the things and I highly recommend it.

Written in verse, this tells the story of 15 year old Ivy as she tries to navigate her way through her parents divorce, her BFF slipping away from her, her body changing, and keeping up appearances as the Smart Girl in school. A poignant tale that I related to on multiple levels.

An interesting read about Ivy, seeing her story develop. A little challenging to read and may be good for high school age girls.

This is a book that will work for a lot of readers. If you're into verse, I think you should pick this up. Sadly, I don't think it was for me.

Novels in verse just hardly ever land for me. I usually like poetry in verse, but after a few of these, I realized they all sounded exactly the same. None had depth beyond “words said in a pretty way”. I don't hate free verse poetry; in fact, I quite enjoy the hard emotions behind it. But here's the catch; it needs to have emotions. But the language here isn't poetry. I like free verse because it invites feelings in me. These words incited nothing in me; not feelings, not love for any of the characters.

The main character narrating this piece is hopelessly generic. There's this trend in YA literature of writing generic characters so anyone can relate to the story. I get it. I just don't particularly like it. Characters like this end up seeming like plot devices, not people.

Unfortunately, in a story depending mostly on a stylistic method to stand out, my dislike for stories told in verse poetry overtook my opinion. As an overall story, this was quite compelling. While I found the characters fairly generic, they were all likable enough. The portrayal of eating disorders is very good, going off what I've read before about portrayal. It's not a bad book. It just wasn't for me.

This Impossible Light is a beautiful wok of art. Combining poetry and narrative, the culmination is not only touching, but incredibly relateable. If you enjoyed, "Shrinking Women" this is a must. It takes the story of a young girl suffering from an eating disorder, and complicates it. By making it about her: her relationship with grief, her mother, and her friends, this book reads quickly, but will move you. I loved every aspect, from the mathematical concepts, to the thematic touches, to the word choices. It deals with issues of fractured families, changing bodies, and moving on. While it can be impossible for us to find the light at some moments or another, it is always there. I cannot get over how in love I am with this story and am already looking forward to reading it again.

This novel written in poetic verse takes you on a journey of mental illness and the aftermath of a family broken apart in a lyrical, crisp, and stunning way. At first I was taken in by Ivy this smart girl mc that felt so much like me. I was that weird girl who enjoyed school, who's favorite classes were english, math, and science. Except while Ivy embraced that side of herself I hid it away as much as I could.

When things started to change in the novel and Ivy started to talk about her loss, loss of family, loss of friends, loss of herself, I began to feel sick, because her spiral into body dysmorphia was similar to how my own spiral into a depression occurred although for very different reasons. As hard as it was for me to read the truths that were being spoken, I could not put this book down.

This bright, funny, nerdy character got dull and dizzy with her fight to control her eating and I was breaking all over inside for it. All she ever wished for was reliability as reliable as 2+2=4 and she broke when she found that to be human is to be unrealiable. Till she could no longer have the heart to remember that there could be an good to life, just discipline, biking, and study study study.

This book was undeniably one of the best books I've read in 2017. Not only that, but one for me to realize that my own scars need a little more work to be fully healed and that that is ok. To human is to take baby steps towards something a bit more positive little by little every day. I am happier for having read this book that beautifully and horrifically describes how one can fall into a state of declining mental-health.

I really enjoyed this novel in verse. I found Ivy’s voice and her story compelling. I enjoyed the way she desperately tries to seize control of one aspect of her life because everything else has fallen apart. Ivy is having a bad time following her parent’s divorce. Her mother is depressed and shutting herself away. Ivy’s world is suddenly unstable and she latches onto the one thing she can control – her eating. I liked the way the story progresses with Ivy’s eating disorder gradually having more and more serious repercussions. This Impossible Light is incredibly sad and moving at times. My only criticism is that the verse that makes up this novel felt a bit too simple at times and could have been deeper. Still, I was drawn in from page one and enjoyed every word. I’d recommend This Impossible Light.

I think the author does a wonderful job of writing the struggle of a teenager trying to gain control in a life that is coming apart as it is known. Reminiscent of Ellen Hopkins (who I admittedly haven't read since high school). I plan on purchasing for my library's YA fiction collection.

Everything in Ivy's life is changing. Her parents have gotten divorced, her brother has moved out to attend culinary school, and her best friend just returned from a summer in Paris with a new friend. Ivy has always been known as the Smart Girl, and she takes pride in this identity. As Ivy struggles to deal with all of the changes in her life, she focuses on what she can control--studying, exercising, and eating. Ivy continues to force control over her diet and exercise, while quickly spiraling out of control.

I did not know what to expect, having not read a long-form poetry narrative before. But from the start, I was caught in the downward spiral and dragged along for the ride.

Some other reviewers said that Lily Myers captured the mentality of those who develop eating disorders. I don't have personal experience to compare it to, but it seems very realistic - the chain-of-events that led to a need to control one little part of your life is a familiar one.

As a novel told in poetry, there are some beautiful lines in there, some that made me have to stop because the sadness was a little much. At the same time, I also felt that it was simplistic. If this was novel told in prose, there could be more opportunities for character development across the board. However, for a quick read, this works too. Sometimes poetry is a what happens when you distill many words into a few that works just as well.