Suzanne van Rooyen: The other me
Wow. Just wow. It is hard to remember the last time I have felt like this after reading a book.
The other me gives us a glimpse of what it is like to be a young person in South Africa. I think that would have been enough to keep me interested - it is a foreign country to me, don't know much about it. Add some LGBT issues and I was hooked, because I had already liked a lot of Suzanne's previous books, Dragon's teeth and Obscura burning.
I started reading this on the train yesterday and when my stop came, I didn't want to get off, because I wanted to keep on reading. Finished this morning in one sitting. Cried quite a lot. I loved both of the main characters, Treasa and Gabriel. This is an YA book and the way it made me re-live my teen years was almost frightening. When we are teens, I'm sure we all feel like aliens sometimes. "No-one understands how I feel!" This is why books like The other me are so important.
Growing up in a small village in a time when internet didn't yet exist, the place where I could find comfort was books. There were people who would understand me. Someone I could love and who wouldn't mock me. In a way, internet has made it easier for us to find like minded people, but it has also created a huge new platform for bullying. So I think books are still important when you are growing up and trying to define who you are.
I hope that this book will be translated into Finnish so that I can give it to my niece and nephew to read when they are growing up.
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