As Far as You'll Take Me took me to a New London

I read The Gravity of Us, so As Far as You’ll Take Me isn’t my first Phil Stamper book. I also have this thing where I’ll read a book, enjoy it while I’m in it, but like two days later I won’t be able to remember a single thing about it, other than the fact I liked it. And I’m like that with TGoU. I remember I liked it, but I don’t remember why. But because I remember liking it, that’s why I wanted to give AFAYTM a go.

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So, the good bestie, Miss Blurb, she told me that the main character, Marty, is heading overseas to London. His parents think he’s going to this summer music course, but he’s basically running away, because he has a one-way ticket – so I immediately got How It All Blew Up vibes from that, Run Away With Me Carly Rae Jepsen tease. And then it also says that Marty wants to build a life for himself there, but London is crowded and overwhelming. Anyway, Marty meets Pierce, who is gorgeous, charismatic, and the blurb finishes up by questioning whether Pierce is the right person to fall for.

Now Marty is “escaping” Kentucky by lying to his parents about going to London for this program, when in reality, he’s just going to London for the summer to try and build a life there, get a job, something that will let him stay in there London. But by the end of the first few paragraphs, he’s questioning what he’s doing, which is understandable, considering he’s uprooting his life for another country.

The whole journey, I gathered, was that Marty basically needed to beat himself, in a way. Throughout the story, he’s plagued with anxiety, doesn’t have a good opinion of himself and makes bad, horse blinder, decisions because of those things. And his move to London forces him to face those things if he actually wants to achieve the things that he wants. As for the story, because of the anxiety and the low self-esteem, it’s rough going, a little crunchy in some places for him. But, without spoilers, I enjoyed the trajectory that Marty went on, even if a lot of what happened in the end wasn’t perfect.

One thing I will say, it was weird reading a story by a US author that was set in the UK. I’m so used to US authors having US settings, and UK authors having UK settings. I should clarify that I don’t meant my point isn’t bad weird, just weird. It was weird seeing London through these new eyes that saw the UK, and London, as this wonderland, almost. I don’t live anywhere near London, or even a big city, but I think because I’m so used to the UK, and London, that all of these things to Marty that seemed like marvels just made me sit there thinking, “Marty, sis, it’s not that exciting, it’s just London.” But the thing is, because everything was so sparkly and new to him, it was that exciting. And, I don’t know, I thought it gave the book this really sweet, innocent, almost clueless, undertone that I really enjoyed.

As for this fictional London, it’s a big city, obviously, and that seems to be the main issue for all the characters. This place is so big, so overwhelming, that it’s almost crushing everyone. But everyone deals with this crushing presence in different ways. Some deal with it better than others. Some can survive it, and others succumb to it and are broken down, and Pierce, the person that Marty falls for, is one of those people.

To speak about Pierce for a bit, in the first third of the book, we learn that Pierce has a habit of moving on from one person to another pretty quickly, both platonically and romantically. And given that Marty is so wildly-anxiety ridden, those two things blend together in this bitter torrent that leaves Marty essentially questioning everything. Now that was something that I equally loved and hated. On the one hand, I have had the very experience that Marty went through and, let me tell you, it’s not great on the old brain box and really hits Miss Mental Health bad. You want to enjoy the moments that you’re in, but your brain won’t let you. I can sum up Marty and Pierce’s relationship with a single line from Ninajirachi and Kota Banks’ song “Vice Versa”: Big lows, the occasional high.

Back in Kentucky, to keep on the character gig, Marty has two friends, Skye and Megan. Skye was fine, I have nothing to say about him. It was Megan that sucks. She sucks as a person, not a character, I should clarify. In fact, she was a pretty good character if I managed to dislike her so intently. It’s basically told to us that she and Marty hated each other for years before becoming friends, but then they only became friends because they each had no one else. It seemed like they were friends more out of utility, rather than anything else, it was kind of sad.

Now, in terms of things I didn’t really like, there was nothing, character or story-wise, that I didn’t like. My main issue was that the dialogue sometimes felt off. It was very “here’s a fact about the character that’s currently talking”. For example, in chapter two, Marty is talking to Pierce, and Marty explicitly states, “When I commit to something, I will complete it. To my own detriment, even.” It was things like this, moments where we’re being told things about the characters, instead of being shown. Like, sure, that quote tells us that Marty is a serious person, but whole premise of the book is about him essentially running away and trying to start a new life, and I think that, as a whole, shows us that he’s a serious person. This issue didn’t happen all that often, or that regularly, but it happened enough times for me to notice it.

And I think that’s all I’ve got in terms of my thoughts on As Far as You’ll Take Me. It’s not whooshing its way up to the top of my favourite books, but I still had a good time reading it. I really liked Marty as a protagonist and enjoyed seeing a character that I could see bits of myself in. That self-doubt he had and the fact he thought he had change parts of himself for another person… It’s something I’ve done myself, so it was nice to see that bit of representation.

            Okay, bye!