So, my main issue with this one is that the author tried too hard to reference everything London in this and it fell very flat because they probably don't know much about English culture and even more specifically, London culture. The 'jokes' about england (if you can even call them that) weren't funny and instead were cringey. Also, I didn't think the writing was particularly good and assumed it was a debut but it isn't. Marty, the main character was also just not easy to like and I never felt like I could understand why he did anything he did. Disappointing in my opinion; I wish it had been better.

I received this as an ARC on NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review

Actual rate: 3

Good:
- REPRESENTATION! MLM, nonbinary, POC :)
- Relatable characters that were gray and real and fun!
- This felt very new and unusual, i loved the music elements

Bad:
- eating disorder plot was not fully developed and completely unfinished in my opinion
- in face, many unfinished plot lines i think, such as the parents and religion thing being only a little delved into
- does the author think that you can just drink whenever in Britain? or randomly play in a public park?

This was a slightly whimsical, gay, musical book which i related too far more than i should have. We had character development, shitty relationships (in many forms), and friends who cared, in a competitive music environment that i loved and related too. The prose was fun and not cliched, with new plot lines mostly fitting with the story. However, I did not think the eating disorder plot was properly acknowledged. It doesn't just go away because you get out of a relationship, and you cant just start eating again like that. It sadly felt a little like a cop out 'and they all lived happily ever after', and almost the same goes for the religion plot which was side-lined for a lot of the novel.

I loved loved loved the music school setting though (how many times am i going to say it? It was so fun!)

CWs: eating disorders, diet talk, fat shaming, attempted rape by a partner, toxic and controlling friendships, religious hatred/bigotry, unaccepting parents, underage drinking

I would recommend this book to YA fans, LGBT+ and others who love a good self finding and actualisation story, teens.

Overall: 3/5

It took me a bit to get into this book but I am so glad I stuck it out.

Matty is an excellent oboe player who has managed to follow his dream of escaping his small town in Kentucky USA for London. He plans to stay with his cousin in London while his Aunt spends the summer abroad and use his musical skills to find himself a job, one which will mean he doesn't need to return home and can live as who he really is.

Through the book Matty deals with a lot of issues, his anxiety at being in busy places (obviously ideal for London), his 'best friend' from home who, now looking in he realises might not always have his best intentions at heart, his parents and their church beliefs (which leaks into his beliefs?), homophobia, distorted eating, body dysmorphia and his first love.

Although it seems like this is covering a lot of topics it doesn't feel crammed and instead entirely believable and relatable, either as Matty or as one of his friends. There were times that Matty frustrated me as he made choices and decisions that obviously weren't in his best interests but I think that that is a credit to the author as it made him realistic, we all have friends that don't listen to you no matter how much you tell them and although it breaks your heart it gets to a point where you have to sit back and let them make the bad choices?

I loved how you pieced together 'that summer' through the book with the journal entries and memories linked through the story and I also think this added an authenticity to the story.

The story of Marty, a gay 17-year old from Avery, Kentucky and his dramatic escape to be a musician in London.

A delight to read - as Marty struggles with identity and belonging, you get to learn and grow with him.

Would recommend! Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

As far as you’ll take me is a coming of age LGBTQ+ story following the life of Oboest Marty as he escapes his unnaccepting home town in Kentucky for a summer of learning and loving himself in London. This book was an easy read, it covered lots of topics such as homophobia, mental illness and toxic friendships and relationships, all of which were handled well and the representation of all of this was real and raw and done well, I did enjoy my book, it was a good YA story but I didn’t find myself connected or loving any of the characters, it was just a simple but realistic read of growing up and figuring out who you are.

Phil Stammer has written a complex MC that comes to life on the pages of his new release, As Far As You’ll Take Me.

Marty is an incredible oboe musician. He also has anxiety and someone who forces him to try things – is it really bullying when she is his best friend? His parents are all about their Church and its beliefs – one where they preach about how being gay is a sin. These are the only three people Marty has come out to in his very religious hometown, in Kentucky. He doesn’t feel safe telling others. However, he has a plan for a life where he can feel free to be himself – even if it does start with a lie and a flight to another country.

Marty is about to have some life shaping experiences. It is up to Marty how he will react and in what way he will allow them to shape him.

I had all the feels as Marty navigates his anxiety amidst new situations, meets potential friends, experiences romantic firsts, and explores new places. For the first time ever, Marty has the freedom to learn who he wants to be without being told who he should be.

This is Phil Stammer’s second published novel and I am hoping we see more from him. As Far As You’ll Take Me shows off his talent for creating relatable characters who feel real.

Add it to your TBR and pre-order now: UK release date 4th March 2021

4.5/5 🌟

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and Phil Stammer for the opportunity to read this fantastic coming of age story in exchange for an impartial review.

This is Marty's coming of age and also coming out story. But it is a whole load more than that too. It's his awakening and also the beginning of a whole new exciting life journey. But I fear I will say too much... Marty arrives in London from Kentucky, armed with his oboe having lied to his parents about passing an audition to music school. His plan is to work his way into a paying gig, staying with his cousin to save on outgoings, and hopefully stay longer. His cousin being a student at the same music school he failed the audition to. Circumstances throw Marty together with his cousin's friend who soon becomes his first boyfriend and that throws a whole other layer of complexity into his life.
To be honest there is so much more I can say about this book as it does cover quite a few topics. But to do so would be doing the author an injustice as it might spoil things and, well, you're supposed to discover things as he intended, not in a review so I will leave the details aside now.
Suffice to say that although it does cover a multitude of issues, there is never any danger of it being overwhelmed. Each flows neatly with the next rather than banging one after the other and all are completely credible with what Marty is going through in the narrative at the time. He's naive and easily led initially as he is still finding his feet - we've all been there; gay, straight, trans, cis etc etc - that's just life, but when you throw in the fact that he is still young, not wholly out, lying to his family to the mix, well, it's no wonder he goes through the mill a bit.
It really helped that I took to Marty right from the off. We just gelled. Maybe I wanted to mother him, protect him, I don't know and I don't want to analyse it too much - I'm happy to accept that he was, to me, a cracking character whose journey I felt privileged to be allowed to witness and be a part of. Other characters were just as well drawn and all had their own journeys and developed nicely through the book. I was actually sad to say goodbye at the end of the book and I'd love to catch up with them a few years down the line too.
All in all, a bit of a change genre wise for me but a book I thoroughly enjoyed and another author to add to my watch list. I'm off to check out The Gravity of Us. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Well in the opening of this book, Phil Stamper did what I never thought possible, he made me yearn for the passport hall at Heathrow Airport. It's not a very nice place and normally I'm very sleep deprived when going through there but Phill Stamper's writing made it seem like a glamorous place fill of possibility and from that moment on I was hooked into this book and Marty's journey.

I listened to this book on audio and the narration was wonderful. I was concerned because a book about someone from the states being in London and the melting pot of accents that that would mean however this narrator did a great job with all of the accents he encountered and really brought Marty and his travels to life. There is also a great authors note narrated by Phil Stamper which I LOVED and the and interview between author and narrator which was such a great piece of bonus content.

Marty is such and easy character to get to know and love because he is searching for his home. He is having the kind of identity crisis that we all have towards the end of the school when we have to go out into the world only Marty has the added fact that he is gay in a town where that is not something that is easily accepted and he also has anxiety making the thoughts of the big bad world even more daunting. I think that fact that I could really sympathise with Marty made me like him as a character even more but then the fact that he is suddenly dumped in another country which speaks the same language as him whilst speaking a very different language to him made me empathize with him. I have experience that but crossing the Atlantic the other way.

I really loved getting to see London and all of its wonderful eccentricities through Marty's eyes. It really made me miss it but I enjoyed getting to discover it with him. This book is also one of a very small handful of books that mentions the immigration process, visas and work permits. It paints them to be the difficult things that they truly are and so thank you to Phil Stamper for that. Something else that this book does really well is explore the issue of forced friendship groups. Yes you're in the same class, apartment, band as someone else and so you're thrust together but that doesn't necessarily mean that you've got anything in common or even that you have to allow those people into your personal space. This is something that is hard to grasp when you start a new job, school or even move to a new location like Marty.

This is definitely a challenging book and you should be aware it comes with care warnings for body dysmorphia and disordered eating, self harm in the form of self-starvation but it was so great to see this issues, alongside other mental health issues written about from the male point of view. So often these issues are only written about from the female point of view and can often become more of a stereotype but I admire the way in which these issues were woven into Marty's story. Without giving any spoilers I also really thought the ending of this book was perfect, I wouldn't have had it written any other way and I am just so grateful for the time I got to spend with this book!

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this before publication, and it’s another story that takes you through some of the highs and lows faced by many teens finding their way in the world.
Marty is not yet eighteen, a keen oboe player and struggling to feel comfortable with announcing his identity as a gay man to his conservative parents. With the help of his cousin, Marty concocts a rather elaborate scheme to step out into the world in his own terms.
From the outset I feared for Marty. I felt awful that his situation might still be a common one, and yet he retained such optimism about how he might start to live his life in the way he chose to.
We follow Marty to London where he tells his parents he’s attending a summer school. He’s not, but he hopes to play music and do whatever he needs to in order to live happily. We see him forge new friendships, and summon the strength to call out some less positive older friends. There’s a tentative relationship, but the thing that really struck me was the strength of character shown by Marty in working through a challenge, persevering with something scary and the determination to live the life he wants.

As far as you'll take me focuses on Marty who leaves Kentucky for London under a false pretence of a music school. We follow his struggles with relationships, anxiety and his future.
The book is mainly set in the present but incorporates diary entries from Marty's first trip to London 6 months earlier. I loved this layout as it slowly reveals more about events that are mentioned in passing in the current timeline and allows the reader to reflect on his personal growth. I found the portrayal of London and Cardiff a nice change and showed a more realistic non tourist look considering it was written from an American's perspective.
The novel references many heavy topics that our main character has to process and grow from. I would say there is some triggering content, the book contains an eating disorder, homophobia, toxic relationship and religious bigotry. I would say the majority of this content is explored and explained, but I believe the eating disorder was only surface level. I would of preferred to see Marty seek help to recover.
Overall, I loved this book as it combined my two favourite things queer and music.

3.5 STARS
This one is an easy read, I liked following Marty's journey and loved all the important issues discussed!
However, I didn't love any of the characters and found that there was a little too much focus on the music for me but overall it was enjoyable and one I think a lot of people will find relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing company for this eARC!

I'm not really sure where to start, I just absolutely loved this book and read it cover to cover in a day. Even though Marty is fresh out of high school and only 17 this book read as more New Adult so definitely don't let the age or anything steer you away if this sounds like a book you'd like!

This book deals with anxiety, eating disorders, self discovery, being an expat, first love, and being LGBTQ+ in a small homophobic US. town, bad (and good) friends, and more really well and realistically. I think that anyone can find parts of their experiences within the pages of this book and they'll find themselves being able to relate even if their life doesn't fit every aspect in this book to a T. In addition I didn't find the overall ending of this book to be predictable, small bits here and there maybe but not the whole plot. By the last sentence I found myself both satisfied with how everything wrapped up but also thinking that I would dive back into Marty's world in a heartbeat if the author decided to write more.

All in all, this book had me feeling many emotions like happiness, sadness, annoyance, irritation, nostalgia, and wanderlust in just a few hundred pages.

I really looked forward to reading this book. It contains so many elements of my favourite novels, genre, LGBTQIA characters, set in the UK. But unfortunately, I had to DNF at 49% and believe me I tried to push to 50% but I just could not. I found it a real slog to get through and I just was not enjoying it. I think some of the issues for me were:

• Straight into the romance, needed a bit more back-story or framing. Whilst this does come later, I feel it needed to be there initially as the ‘love-story’ lacks interest just being thrown out right at the start.
• Too much musical detail, yes Marty is a musician but if the reader is not keen on instruments or orchestras a lot of the detail goes over your head and for me, I lost interest.
• Marty is from the US and moves to the UK. The way the characters spoke ground on me, the word ‘mate’ (which we do use in Britain) felt overused, the British characters did not sound genuine and Marty seemed to confuse US & UK terms such as ‘five-pound bill’. I don’t know if this was supposed to be intentional that he was blending/mixing the language, but it irritated me highly.
• Could not bond with any of the characters, even Marty, they felt very flat and without much personality.

I did like that issues around anxiety were included as I suffer from anxiety myself, however, even this was approached mildly, as though it was just thrown in there to be able to say the book addresses the issue. I feel it could have been explored further and with greater interest. It could have been part of a plot that resonates (or be empathised) with by a lot more readers than the musical plot line.
I feel this book would be enjoyed by quite a niche type of reader and unfortunately on this occasion that isn’t me.

As Far As You'll Take Me is a story about a 17-year-old boy called Marty. He's an aspiring musician (Oboe) and comes from a small conservative town in Kentucky, with a couple of conservative parents. Which is fine - until Marty comes out as gay. Marty's parents disapprove and encourage him to stay firmly in the closet, quoting sermons from the local church and hiding his secret away from everyone else in his small town. The only people who know are Marty's best friends, and his aunt and cousin.

So, Marty heads to London. He wants to live his life, unafraid of being himself, and moves in with his aunt and cousin. He plans to get a job there and never look back. Escaping his small life in Kentucky once and for all.

Although, as I'm sure you can imagine, life always has other plans, and on Marty's arrival to London, he meets someone who knocks him off his feet. His life moves fast. He sees new things, kisses new people, goes new places, makes new friends, and amongst all the good, some bad happens too.

I really enjoyed this one. I must preferred it over Gravity Of Us by the same author. I saw myself in some of the same situations as Marty as a teen; confusion, firsts, anxiety, love, heartbreak, body issues. Things that seem all consuming and difficult, but Stamper wrote it so easily, and nothing felt too much. Marty felt genuine, as did everything he was working through.

There was a particular paragraph in the book I loved. I don't want to spoil it and post it all here, but it was talking about glitter, its beauty, its chaos, and compared it to PRIDE. Glamorous and protesting. It was wonderful and it felt powerful to me.

I look forward to seeing what comes next with Stamper.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

It is a 3.5 stars for me, would be much higher probably if I were a teenager reading it.

Marty knows that he can’t stay in his small town in Kentucky. He just came out to his Christian parents and it didn’t go very well. He decides to lie to his family about entering a prestigious summer programme in a music school in London. He packs his oboe and moves to London where he tries to start his career as a musician. His parents don’t know Marty doesn’t have a ticket to fly back and he doesn’t intend to. He must find a gig as soon as possible to cover his tracks and find a way to stay overseas.

Of course, we all know things never go as planned.

This was a smart, heart-breaking and, at the same time, funny read. I really enjoyed The Gravity of Us, Stamper’s first novel, so I was quite interested in reading As Far As You’ll Take Me. I have to say, I found this novel more mature and I liked this one better.

First of all, I loved Marty. Marty has a very introverted personality, and he is such a worrywart and Stamper made this character so believable and relatable. Marty worries and stresses about the most trivial things, like meeting someone and unexpectedly ending up in a pub for an unplanned drink, or travelling without having decided which places to visit. I have been there, so I shared much of Marty’s inner struggles.

Secondly, I loved the plot. It was simple, but at the same time, the reader encounters lots of serious topics. I also thought there are a few similarities between the two novels, two recurring topics. Both novels discuss mental health and complex relationships with parents. In As Far As You’ll Take Me, I thought they are taken to a deeper level. I can’t say too much about parents/son relationship without giving out spoilers, but I thought that it had a clearer resolution compared to The Gravity of Us, the struggles are more organically integrated within the plot. Marty’s parents are fervent Christians and Marty’s story is about coming out to a family who has obvious difficulties in accepting their son’s homosexuality. The topic of mental health is also taken a step further when the plot moves into a discussion about eating disorders. It is all presented under a realistic lens but the writer brilliantly navigates them in such a delicate way and always with bits of humour.

The writing is flawless and the descriptions of both London and Florence are detailed. Reading this novel in London during the lockdown made me miss London even more. The personal experience and knowledge of British culture transpire through the whole novel and I loved all the funny comparison between British English and American English – hilarious!! As Far As You’ll Take Me is a more mature novel than Stamper’s debut. He has the power to explore sensitive and current topics and bring the plot and Marty’s adorable story of self-discovery to a satisfying ending. I can’t recommend this read enough.

I want to gift this to every teenager out there. Reading about Marty finding himself in London was fun, emotional, heartbreaking and uplifting all at the same time. Learning about the oboe was also a plus!

I really wanted to love Marty with all my heart. Having read Stamper's first book, I was excited to see what he would do next and I'm very disappointed. Whereas the first book flows well, has an interesting theme with fun twists and turns, "As Far As You'll Take Me" doesn't succeed in the same way.

In the first 80 pages, Marty has several panic attacks, which doesn't further the plot and turns the reading experience quite stressful. There are endless descriptions of Marty's friendship with Megan always with the same emotive note. The diary entries are also pointless, as we know from the start we blew up the audition. Also, what's up with him finding Kentucky every place he goes to? The flowers in the pub, the green hills of Italy, the beach in Brighton...it was heavy-handed to say the least.

I love young adult queer books because as Stamper says in the acknowledgements it's important for young queers to feel like they are not in alone in their experiences - and the book does portray body image struggles (so common in the queer community) with some level of authenticity. But, everywhere else the book feels long, repetitive and shallow.

After being disappointed by the authors first novel, I wanted to give this one a shot and I did enjoy it quite a bit more! But the parts of their first novel that I had issues with, were present again here. The writing didn’t feel good, it felt juvenile and I just didn’t love it, also, the realistic factor of it. I’m not being funny but I really don’t think there are many parents who would happily let their child go to a country across the Atlantic for a summer on their own when they’re 17???

I really hated Pearce also from the start, HES a bad person and you can disagree with me but he is. And Marty constantly is trying to impress him until the very end and that just doesn’t sit well with me. When a guy you like basically makes you develop an eating disorder, it’s unhealthy and borderline abusive and I feel like the ending is set up so that they will get together eventually.

I loved a lot of the characters, especially Shane, Sophie, Dani and Sing who all seemed to care about Marty and his wellbeing and they were just a really great group who I loved a heck of a lot. I love found family so, so much.

So no this novel, wasn’t really for me and I think I’ll give the authors next novel a go and if I don’t love that one I’ll stop reading his books in the future bc life is too short to read books you don’t like.

Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me. I DNFed at 44% because of how heavy on music it was. I know it's kind of a silly reason but all of the music details flew over my head and I wasn't especially interested in it.

I also am not sold on the romance and honestly? Marty had more chemistry with Sang, who he busked with once than he does with his love interest.

I also think that the author googled how British people speak and applied the most basic of stereotypes on a bunch of teenagers, not considering the area they are from. Honestly, half of it worked and half of it failed, not to mention that these days most British people are more aware of America and typical American things than American teenagers are. So, I found so many of the things to be inaccurate.

As Far As You'll Take Me is a YA coming of age story about a teenager trying to find his place and purpose away from his family and hometown. Marty's been dealing with his religious parents' disapproval since he came out to them last year, but now he's taking a leap into the unknown, and going from Kentucky to London to try and live his dreams of becoming a musician. Only problem is, he's lied to his parents about why he's there (he didn't get into the music school he was hoping for and is instead hoping to find a job), his anxiety and body image issues are making things tough for him, and he needs more people on his side.

This book was refreshing in its focus on Marty getting away from toxic people in different ways and remembering what he really wants, as a lot of the narrative is around a whirlwind London romance that isn't quite as Marty thinks it is and around Marty's baggage from home, particularly his parents and his not-always-very-nice best friend. The message is around forming a chosen family and making friends who support you in ways that don't make you feel bad, and that felt powerful, though it was hard to watch Marty make mistakes to get there. In some ways the book was very much the 'expectation vs reality' meme, showing how Marty needed to step back and consider things to see what changes he wanted, rather than just trying to be a magical new version of himself.

Fans of Stamper's debut The Gravity of Us might expect more of a romcom from this one, but instead it's a more grounded (pun intended) look at someone learning how to find a place for themselves and surround themselves with the right people. Marty makes mistakes and has a lot to deal with at times (and idealises London to an extent that is almost painful), and Stamper covers issues like disordered eating and forced outing without making them the main focus of the story, but this is still ultimately an upbeat look at finding ways to grow that are positive and finding people to grow with.