Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers

Release Date: April 1st 2012

"So why don't you tell Fiorella about it?"

"I don't want to tell her till she knows me better."

"How long have you been seeing each other?"

"Three months."

"Not long."

"Long enough"

"Long enough for what?"

"For me to know I want to hang on to her."

Karl is just an eighteen year old boy trying not to lose his girl. She sets him to the task of writing down answers to approximately like fifty questions about himself so she can no more about him because he can't really express himself. He's very shy and is sort of a meticulous type of person who sometimes acts beyond his years. He has this pain lost boy type of feel when you get to know him. He has a hard time talking about himself because he's very modest and he's just that sort of person. It comes with the pain of losing his father when he was just twelve years old. And you ache for him once you get to know him because he is this lost boy/ old soul type of person. He idolized his father and was "too" attached so when he died he was devastated. He kind of became his father in the things he likes, likes to do, and acts. He's also dyslexic and his father was the only one that he felt accepted him. 

Being dyslectic has brought him to the door of Fiorella's (his girlfriend) favorite author an old man of about 70 who is pretty lonely right now.  He sort of sees himself in him so surprising himself he agrees. Unknowingly to him he just started something that would change the course of his life and him himself.

First of all I thought this book was brilliant. The author and Karl as I got to know them seemed to me like they were kindred spirits. They had this sort of invisible bond/link right from the beginning. The author in the book well let's say narrator from now on was not so much wise but had his experience to share on with Karl but i think he learned things from him as well. He needed Karl as much as Karl needed him but more than they thought they would because it was all about the writing in the beginning but then it grew to be something more profound. There was at times this underlining weirdness coming out of this book. It was just how the book presented itself and how the characters were. Distant. Kind of weird the narrator just accepted. It just felt weird... the way they were. Such strange creatures. Karl was very mysterious. He was different then what I expected. He's so introverted and as I found later controlling. He needs to do one thing at a time. He was just again (sorry for repeating myself so much) weird. But interesting weird like you want to know more.

The river felt very symbolic. Isolation/happiness/remembering/pain/loss all wrapped into just one area. It was again a brilliant book. It gave you this calming effect after you finished like some books are able to do. It makes you think and it had characters in it that you see in you. You learn to care for them pretty easily. It gives you perspective and just leaves you silent. It's the sort of book that makes you into a better person and makes you reflect on life.