It wasn't a good decision for me to read this last night considering I have two tests today, but in my defense, it's an incredibly short book, and I still managed to study quite a bit.

I won't be writing a full review, but I'll do a little one for Goodreads right now, mostly because this book has somehow become really important to me in the less than 24 hours that I've come to know it. It's a very personal story, something that Patrick Ness obviously knew really well, and that made me feel even more connected with it than I already was. I don't want to go into the nitty gritty of why I related so much to Adam's story because at the end of the day, I have never had the same upbringing as Adam, yet I have had some of the same feelings. I will say now that this book is really heavy on internalized homophobia, especially regarding religion.

I think the sole reason this couldn't get five stars, despite how much I felt seen on the pages, despite the actual tears, was because of the sections about the murdered girl. I understood that Adam's story and her story were both about releasing themselves from prisons, in a sense, albeit both a metaphor for something else, but I didn't really enjoy the girl's sections. They didn't connect back in the ending, which really bothered me, so for that reason, it lost a star :(

I highly, highly recommend Release though. It was truly something special.

(And so far the only Patrick Ness book I've rated above three stars.)

-Book Hugger

http://www.bookhuggerreviews.com