In January I read The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper and I loved it! It was so fun and nerdy, all about space travel and exploration with amazing characters. And ever since finishing that book I have been waiting to get my hands on a copy of As Far As You'll Take Me, Phil Stamper's second novel.
As Far As You'll Take Me focuses on Marty's summer abroad in London, except he's not attending the prestigious summer school his parents think he is.. he's running away. My heart broke for Marty in the very first chapter, he's an incredibly sweet and passionate character who just wants to live his life as he pleases.
Phil Stamper writes novels that resonate with me so much, The Gravity of Us found the inner Space nerd in me and As Far As You'll Take Me spoke to the teen girl who practiced her squeaky clarinet until her brother shut all the doors. Whilst both of these novels dealt with serious and sad situations, the majority of the stories are fun and engaging tales about queer boys finding love in the un-likeliest of places! Phil Stamper writes with humour that is very much needed in contemporary LGBTQ+ stories while not shying away from the realities of life. As Far As You'll Take Me is another great read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

TW: anxiety, eating disorders, homophobia

Wow. Firstly, Marty is a better person than I EVER will be. He’s so wholesome and honestly deserves the world.
This book covers some really tough topics, in really honest and real ways.
I have so many feelings about this book (which is ALWAYS a good thing when you finish a book, cause if you feel passionate about the characters and story then the author has done their job well!) but I can’t divulge them ALL without spoiling. So I’ll hold the specific details but this book will take you on a real journey.
So powerful, so real.

As Far As You’ll Take Me is the second novel by Phil Stamper that I have read and throughly enjoyed. This novel shows how much he has developed in terms of the topics tackled in the book and his overall writing style. This is one of those books that I am sure so many people will love and learn so much from.

I was a big fan of Phil Stamper’s first novel, The Gravity of Us, which I read a year or so ago now, so of course I was incredibly excited to read his latest novel! This book is set in Europe which I loved because we’ve not had the chance to travel for a while and this book felt like going on a little holiday.


Marty as a main character is wonderful and he is such a fun character to see the world through the eyes of. Marty suffers with anxiety and it is discussed in this book in a great way. I throughly enjoyed seeing where Marty was at the start of the book compared to the end. I loved the passion for music that bursts out from the page and it really brought a smile to my face.

Throughout this book we see Marty develop an eating disorder. This can of course be triggering for a number of people so please read this book with care and check for other warnings before reading. It was interesting to see how an eating disorder can start, especially when it comes to how those with an eating disorder desire to be seen by others. As well as how just casual comments can really affect someone. My only issue with this part of the storyline is that it feels quite superficial and the whole aspect was not developed enough for me. It did feel quite like an afterthought.

Toxic friendships and also toxic relationships are another thing dealt with within this book. This topic is approached so much better than the other topics. We see Marty learn to navigate which people have a positive impact on his life and how to deal with those who leave a negative impact on him and his life. We see him learn to find friends who make him realise what friendship is meant to be like. It can be way too easy to make excuses for ‘friends’ actions without realising the impact that they have on you and your life. It is the perfect example of found family and it made me very happy.

This book is set mainly in London but other locations in Europe are explored. It is fun to read about travelling in a book, especially at the moment. The descriptions are both accurate but also you can often tell they are through the eyes of an American. Aside from that, the writing in this book is easy to follow and it flows nicely.

Overall, this book is very character-driven, is wonderfully paced and I enjoyed it a lot. It is an excellent YA LGBTQ+ contemporary standalone that I will be recommending a lot. I would just recommend checking out content warnings before reading this one. I am excited to see what Phil Stamper writes in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

The Gravity Beneath Us was one of my favourite reads of Lockdown #1, so I was looking forward to Stamper's new novel. This book is less idealistic than his debut and more grounded in the realities and difficulties of growing up gay, which is definitely needed. Stamper doesn't shy away from unpleasant issues, and this book discusses mental health and eating disorders, and how you might make connection after bad experiences with family and friends. The friendship angle is particularly unique, as not that many books discuss how to identify and end friendships that may be close but ultimately contain elements of toxicity. However, the book also has many elements of joy: for music, for friendships and for loving yourself. A great read for any teen or any adult.

As Far As You'll Take Me is a book that I found hard to review, because my feelings about it are really complex. There were parts I love, heart warming moments that made me smile, but there were also some parts that I thought could have been tackled better and that felt slightly gloss over. It's not the fluffy, feel-good book that the cover and the blurb might give, but I did think that it had its moments.

The core of the story is about Marty leaving the nest and growing as a person outside the influence of his family and friends back in the US. Because so much of the story rested firmly on his shoulders and his ability to respond to the plot beats, there were moments where Marty's development feel a little short, but I enjoyed seeing how he started off the book compared to how he ended. I loved his passion for music and his desire to break into the music scene, especially when he started becoming more confident and finding himself as a musician outside the settings he played in and out in public - this was a really good way of seeing the changes that happened to him as he made decisions to break out of his shell.

Not unlike The Gravity of Us, As Far As You'll Take Me deals with some fairly serious topics. Marty grapples with his place in the world, in a very geographical sense, having moved to London without the safety net he had in his hometown, and there's an exploration of what relationships can be like and body issues. In a way, it was good to see how body issues can manifest, especially in terms of how those you want to be desired by see you, and how casual comments can really throw you off. I do think, however, that this was brushed off a little bit, because the resolution and the way Marty dealt with it felt very off-the-cuff, which I didn't like. Toxic friendships and relationships are another thing that was dealt with, and I like this approach more than the body image parts: Marty learns to navigate who actually has a positive impact on his life, and finds some friends who make him realise what it was supposed to be like. It can be all too easy to make excuses for friends' actions without realising the impact they have on you, and I thought this was well done.

The setting of the book, the city of London, was a weird combination of accurate though seen through the eyes of an American, and just off enough to leave me scratching my head. I don't think I've ever seen a sausage roll in a Costa Coffee, which was a small detail but still confusing to those who have a Costa nearby. The perspective is definitely that of someone who is not hugely familiar with the location, which threw off my reading some, but I don't think this will be an issue for readers in the same position as Marty himself. Aside from this, I found the writing easy to get through, flowing nicely, and the pacing was good. It was a readable book, if slightly short, which I like about it.

I don't think this book is for everyone, but I do think that there are people out there who will really love it, and who will find what they need within its pages. I ultimately enjoyed it and I liked reading it a lot, but I didn't love it as much as I could have because there were some parts that didn't quite gel for me. If it sounds like a book you might enjoy, I would absolutely encourage you to read it, but I would also advising checking out the content warnings first.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

As Far as You'll Take Me is a very authentic contemporary story about a young queer man exploring life away from his parents for the first time. Judging by the cover and blurb I was mistakenly expecting a light-hearted, feel good, coming-of-age romance. What I got was something a bit more intense, covering topics such as homophobia, anxiety, disordered eating and toxic relationships. All of which are very real, valid issues that should be explored, just not quite what I was expecting after the first few chapters! Despite covering a range of issues, it is not at all hard to read. This story feels so real, and it's easy to inhabit Marty's world alongside him.

A well written story telling the tale of one gay teenager who thinks he knows what friends are but soon discovers that not all friends are friendly. A coming of age of any teenager boy gay or otherwise caught between knowing what you want out of life and finding actually that’s not what you want at all and maybe your parents aren’t always wrong.
Set in London with music college background this is well worth a read !

As Far As You'll Take Me is Phil Stamper's second novel and after I'd read his first novel The Gravity of Us and thoroughly enjoyed it, this book was one of my anticipated releases for 2021. Unfortunately I was left feeling incredibly disappointed. There were so many times that I almost DNF'd this book because I just couldn't get through it at all.

The characters were not very likeable, the writing was unbearable at times and the plot was just not very interesting. The book was set in the UK but was clearly written by somebody who had basic knowledge of the UK, which was very irritating to this British girl. Whilst I did enjoy some aspects to the book (such as the representation of anxiety and the aspect of friendship), it just felt like every other YA contemporary book I have read.

Overall just not a great book at all.

In the author's note Stamper tells us that he spent time in London for 'grad school'. I was very surprised when I read this, as this book reads as someone who visited London for a week and googled the rest. I imagine you might like this book more if you are a teenager who wishes to live or visit London or romanticises it or England in general. There's a whole lot of "urgh the coffee is so bad" in LONDON. As if you can't find speciality coffee shops everywhere.

There's quite a few inaccuracies in this book - both factual (the first one coming to mind is someone with an Irish passport would not get a stamp when travelling to Italy) and story related (just some he said/she said stuff), these might have been addressed in the final version though. The reason why I'm nitpicking, especially with the passport issue is that our main character, Marty, looks up and googles everything so he would definitely have looked up the situation with travelling to different countries.

Anyway, that's not my problem with my enjoyment of this book, just an observation.

From the blurb/synopsis you can tell some of the more serious topics that will be addressed in the book - homophobia, anxiety. You pick this book up knowing these will play a part in the novel and are prepared for any negative feelings that may arise due to that. Nowhere does it mention negative body image and disordered eating. I wish I knew that going in, because it was a surprise to get to. It's not even handled very well, despite the author having lived experience. Crash dieting, calorie observation, choice starvation are all on page....and then it sort of just stops being an issue, it doesn't quite get resolved but a one off line is mentioned and then no more body image stuff is addressed... There is a lot of damaging information and not enough resolution or consequences, or talking about the negative aspects. The amount of weight he lost is significant, while we are never told a starting weight or a lowest weight, but we are told in terms of BMI numbers (it is also noted in the story that BMI isn't a great tool...but it's the one used), so if we go by Marty having an average or just above average height from the information we have then we can figure out roughly how much weight he loses in the space of a few weeks (more than twice of the high end of what is always deemed the "safe" number) ...he mentions losing a specific amount of weight in one week. There is an okay conversation about "what is your goal weight" "do you think that will make you happy" but it feels flat. The author's note at the back addressed disordered eating and gives helplines to call, but this information would be best at the front. Again, I don't know if it is better addressed in the final copy but I hope it is.

I didn't like the insertion of the previous year's diary entries and them being in non-chronological order. They didn't really add anything to the story that wasn't already addressed or hinted at in the current storyline. An extra sentence or paragraph could have been added to explain what happened in the important diary entry but other than that they seemed a waste of time. We already had a lot of bloat for such a short book - we have many characters but not a lot of development or page time for most of them. I also didn't really care about any of them as I didn't know who they were. We were told about the great connection Marty has with them but not really shown. I really wanted more of Shane in the book, he was one of the only characters I liked and I would have loved for his and Marty's relationship to be explored more fully by the end.

However, this book was a fast read. Marty's final position and confidence growth led to a satisfactory ending, dealing with his own development and story rather than romantic developments found in many YA books. The handling of toxic friendships/relationships was also handled particularly well in my opinion...with the exception of one scene that was again just glossed over and not discussed.

I don't know how much the issue of the disordered eating and the handling of it soured my taste for this book. I don't know if I would have liked it that much more if it wasn't included or if I was prepared for it or in a better headspace for it. If it was handled better then maybe, but yeah....

*I received a free eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This is the first book I’ve read by Phil Stamper and it was a really enjoyable experience overall. I really loved the character of Marty and found his experiences with anxiety very relatable as someone who suffers from both anxiety and depression - like Marty, I struggle a lot in crowds and so I was immediately endeared to him very early on in the book. Stamper’s portrayal of anxiety attacks felt very true to life, which both made them hard for me to read and also made me feel understood in a way that a lot of fictional portrayals of anxiety don’t.

I was initially very worried that the romance in this would be too rushed, considering how early on Pierce and Marty met and how quickly Marty started to fall for him (not that I’m one to judge honestly) but as the red flags in their relationship developed and I realised that it was a story of caution and found family and not necessarily one of romance, I was once again pulled back into the story.

The conclusion was very satisfying to me, with the exception that Marty’s eating disorder was never really touched on again. I would have liked for the book to have gone into more detail with this and shown Marty seeking help, rather than just slowly starting to eat again, as teens with eating disorders who might read the book may be influenced by this decision, especially if they are unwilling to seek help themselves.

Over all I really enjoyed this book, and I’ll definitely be reading Phil Stamper’s other works going forward.

4/5

Phil Stamper’s ‘As Far As You’ll Take Me’ follows 17-years-old Marty as he moves to London for the summer (and hopefully for a future) in order to escape his small-town and hopefully find some gigs, with nothing but his small savings and oboe. Able to stay with his cousin in London, Marty tells his parents he got into a prestigious music programme. Only that last year, everything went not the way it was supposed in the hours leading to the audition, and now, he’s lying.

While I have enjoyed ‘As Far As You’ll Take Me’, I didn’t love it completely. The book has dealt with some heavy topics such as anxiety and food disorders, and where I think Marty’s anxiety and panic attacks were handled great, I couldn’t say the same about his anorexia. It felt like the issue has been only half-presented, half-dealt with. It might have been possibly because ‘As Far As You’ll Take Me’ tries to fit a lot of narrative and issues into a relatively short story. On the other hand, anxiety was a huge part of the story and Marty’s interactions with people and the world, and I think it was done well. Marty felt real.

Overall, it was a nice read, but I felt that at moments, the narrative was a little rushed forward and that it wasn’t entirely realistic. I’m still looking forward to reading the author’s previous book, ‘The Gravity of Us’.
This book reminded me a little of Arwin Ahmadi’s ‘How It All Blew Up’, though in a slightly different setting. I would recommend it for those enjoying coming-of-age YA narratives, touching upon some heavier topics.

As Far As You'll Take Me is a YA contemporary novel by Phil Stamper, about seventeen year old Marty, a gay teenager brought up in a strict religious household. He leaves Kentucky for London, to live with his cousin and play music. He is finally free to be himself and fully come out of the closet. But things are never that easy, and leaving everything behind is harder than he expected.

I wanted to read this because I absolutely adored The Gravity of Us, and with this novel Phil Stamper has done it again, writing something really moving and poignent and real. The book deals with the trauma of a religious upbringing, of being gay and straddling the line between being closeted and out, and coping with a family that loves you (and you love them) and yet wouldn't accept such a large part of you. Stamper explores unhealthy friendships and relationships, personal growth, finding your real friends, learning from mistakes and building new bridges all through the eyes of a sensitive, vulnerable teenager trying to make his own way in the world. There are realistic portrayals of mental health problems, including anxiety and panic attacks, and disordered eating, issues that are highly prevelant amongst LGBTQ+ youth. The plot of the novel is angsty, but also heartfelt, and I was rooting for Marty the whole way through.

I do feel that a book aimed at teenagers and featuring such difficult themes should have had a content warning in the description somewhere. Or even just a hint at what was to come. Any book that deals with disordered eating or eating disorders, especially when aimed at teenagers, needs to tread carefully. Forewarned is fore-armed, and even just a mention in the description would have been better than nothing. There is a list of phone numbers at the end, but in my opinion this isn't good enough, because the damage has already been done.

I also didn't really appreciate Welsh being referred to as 'straight up gibberish'! Maybe a minor quibble, but still, given the history of the Welsh language, it bothered me.

I was definitely in two minds about this book by the end, and had I not been reading it as an ARC, it may have ended up indefinitely unfinished. This outcome is as much as a surprise to me as anyone else - the premise sounded fantastic, Stamper has a great voice, the passion for music oozes from the pages, so what went wrong?

On a technical level, probably most elements, sadly. For starters, there were several important and significant themes in the novel, but on the whole, these were largely only superficially handled. I point, for example, to the disordered eating arc, which felt all too quickly resolved to me. In addition, lots of the plot points felt very contrived and this force also led to other technical elements being affected, such as out-of-character actions.

The diary entry elements, designed (I presume) to give us greater insight into Marty's parents as characters, felt rather superfluous to me. They broke up the flow of the story and actually didn't give that much background to either characters or plot. I'd certainly have loved some more exploration into the difficult family relationships (and toxic friendships) introduced in this novel, particularly as (once again) I felt the mother's religious awakening was rather abrupt.

Finally, and it's a pet peeve of mine, can we examine how romantic relationships are portrayed in YA literature? I mean, there's instalove and then there's instalove. Falling head-over-heels for a guy you meet stepping out into the airport is very, very abrupt, and without seeing a spark or feeling the chemistry, leads to a very unconvincing relationship for the reader.

It's readable, sure, and credit where credit's due, I didn't actively dislike reading it at any point, but among its contemporaries it doesn't stand particularly strong and fails to particularly wow in any aspect.

A massive thank you to Bloomsbury YA and Netgalley for this review copy!

Well. This one was an emotional rollercoaster.

I loved Marty’s journey, and his determination to succeed. His future doesn’t quite go to plan, and it’s up to him to see where life takes him.

I liked the writing style, and I felt that Stamper portrayed things well. There were a lot of difficult issues within the story (eating disorders, anxiety) that could trigger certain emotions, but I felt they were dealt with sensitively.

This was an honest account of a young man’s journey to find himself. I was gripped from the start.

As Far as You’ll Take Me by Phil Stamper

Marty a 17-year-old from Kentucky, US. Has made a plan. He’s moving to London, permanently. Although his parents don’t know that yet. A year previously, Marty came out to his religious family, and he didn’t feel accepted. He’s worried he’ll never be able to be himself in his small town. So, moving to London, staying with his cousin and finding a career in music is his plan. Everything goes out the window when Pierce, his cousin’s friend picks him up from the airport. He’s everything Marty isn’t, confident, a little arrogant and sexy as hell, and very enticing. Will Marty be able to keep his head in the game, or will everything crumble around him? Go and read the book to find out.

This book was a joy to read, I basically inhaled it within a 24-hour period. Phil is really good at writing books that make people want to know more, to see where the story will lead. I like that it is raw and imperfect. Highlighting, that although life can be tough, really tough sometimes, there is always light at the end. We can get through anything.

It is a beautiful coming-of-age novel, that isn’t a standard boy meets boy and everything is perfect, kind of a story. It’s messy, complicated and I’m sure to a lot of people, totally relatable. It focuses on what can happen when you come out and you don’t get the response you may hope for, it explores friendships and ultimately coming out the other side, after being lost. I really enjoyed reading from Marty’s perspective, his personal growth was really wonderful to witness. I think anyone who enjoys YA contemporary or LGBTQA+ novels will love this one.

TW. Homophobia, abusive/toxic friendships and eating disorders.

As Far as You’ll Take Me is an earnest coming of age story following Marty, a closeted gay kid from Kentucky as he moves to London for a new beginning, one where he is free to be himself. From the outside, everything seems to be going great: he’s made friends, travelled Europe and even has a budding romance on the go. But Marty’s struggling. His savings are dwindling without a job in sight, tensions are brewing between him and the friends and family he left behind and his anxiety is getting steadily worse. He’s not quite living the dream but maybe he’ll find something real instead.

I will be honest here, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. I have to admit that the marketing led me to believe it was more lighthearted than it was, with an equally cutsie romance. And although it did have its sweet moments and was in no way a depressing book, As Far as You’ll Take Me also dealt with some very heavy topics. Most of these were hinted at in the synopsis: his parents’ homophobia, his anxiety and everything not going exactly to plan. This wasn’t an issue and I enjoyed the more personal journey Marty went on and felt that it was an honest representation of what so many other queer teens are struggling with.

However, what I wasn’t aware of was that Marty develops body image issues which leads to disordered eating. Marty’s struggles with this as he enters his first relationship is something I’m sure a lot of readers will relate to, especially considering the toxic masculinity and expectations of body types prevalent in the gay community. But unfortunately it soured my reading experience, particularly as I felt the resolution of this plotline was a bit too quick and easy. I was completely unprepared to read this and had this not been a review copy with a quickly approaching publication date, I’d have put this aside to read when I was in a better place and more prepared. As it was, this element of the book and the lack of trigger warnings really negatively affected my reading experience and would have led to this book receiving two stars had the ending not redeemed it. I will note here that I read an ARC and I don't know what the trigger warning situation will be with the finished copy.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy a lot of things about this book. As with The Gravity of Us, Stamper’s writing style is gripping and easy to sink into, making reading fast and fun. I particularly enjoyed the direction the story took, showing Marty’s character development and growing confidence. I felt that this led to a really satisfying conclusion and created a really important story of the protagonist’s own development, rather than their romance, which I hope to see more of. I also appreciated the discussion of toxic relationships and the way this was handled in the book, as well as the new friends Marty found. Although I have no understanding of music, particularly the more classical / orchestral type featured in the book, I could tell this theme was handled with a lot of love and understanding and think music lovers would adore it.

I also must admit that there were several other elements I didn't enjoy, notably the diary entries. Although these were important and I appreciated the insight, the lack of order made them confusing and took me out of the main story. Additionally, I felt no connection with Marty or any of the other characters and struggled to care for them. I feel that this is in part due to there being so much going on in a fairly short book; there were so many characters and plotlines that nothing was quite as developed as I'd have liked.

Marty’s journey to finding his own place in the world was incredibly honest and I can see As Far as You’ll Take Me becoming an important book for a lot of people. I just wish my experience reading it hadn’t been overshadowed by the lack of sufficient trigger warnings.

This was a great YA book, it follows Marty as he travels from Kentucky to London to stay with his cousin. He came out at as Gay to his family the year before but has felt that they have not accepted him for who he is. So he decided to jet off to London to stay with family and find himself and acceptance.

This book does have some strong themes which include, Homophobia, eating disorder, mental health and the main character being forced to out himself.

Phil Stamper I felt has written a great book about self discovery. There are strong topics where the main character suffer severe anxiety and attempts to fit in by starving himself. The main character Marty is on a discovery of self worth and I felt that he grew throughout the book.

I found that his friends and family were supportive when he needed it in the end. He was on a journey of self destruct and his friend Sophie saw that and tried to help him. It also looked at how relationships can be toxic and that not everything is as it seems on the surface. I really disliked Pierce but I also felt sorry for him at the same time. He himself had some issues that he needed to sort out before he found a relationship.

I also loved the inclusion of music and how that when Marty played the Oboe he was swept away with the music and he was himself. It was on constant that he loved and was able to keep doing so that he was himself.

Massive TW for eating disorders.

I read this book as part of a bookstagram tour, after hearing really good things about the book and the author. This genre is not typically something that I would read but I was really excited to get to this one.

As Far As You'll Take Me was a good but heart breaking read. It was really interesting to watch Marty's journey to find himself. He did irritate me at times, some of the decisions he made and the friendship mistakes he seemed to make on more than one occasion wound me up more than anything. However, I felt better about things towards the end. Big shoutout to Sophie, definitely my favourite character.

The ending was good, I would have liked a bit more background about why it ended the way that it did. I would love to know what happens next.

This book had a very interesting premise. It’s a very easy read but for me, it didn’t stand out in quite the way ‘The Gravity Of Us’ did. I found the main character less likeable, though I did like the deeper insight into his mental health, even if everything didn’t feel as explored as it could have been. As an English
person...you could tell this was written by an American. I was surprised to read he’d visited. Overall, this was an easy read that kept me hooked, but unlikely to be something I’d pick up and read again.

I didn’t expect anything going into this book but it somehow didn’t deliver anyway.
It was all super rushed and there was little to no background info when I needed it and with way too many characters that I didn’t vibe with.

Marty arrives in London and falls in love with his cousins friend who picks him up from the airport in a millisecond. The events after that happen in a blur and it was all kind of confusing and chaotic for me.
Marty has anxiety, I got that, but somehow the style of writing just wasn’t for me. Especially the diary entries didn’t add anything to the story in my opinion and simply interrupted my reading flow.

The friendships form as quickly as the romance, Marty is very naive and kind of runs into every toxic relationship he can find on the way.

I liked that it raised important topics about anxiety, eating disorders, toxic relationships and the impact homophobia has in teenagers in a religious environment.
This was a slice of life/ coming of age story and I think it will be perfect for people who love these kinds of books, but it wasn’t my kind of book I guess.