Genre: Young Adult
Author: Alessandro D’avenia
Translator: Tabitha Sowden
Year published: 2018 (English translation)
TWs: Terminal Illness, Loss, Grief
Rating: 2.5/5
What makes a teenager… a teenager? Is it the slang, the awkwardness, or the fumbling through first loves and mistakes? This translated Italian YA novel tries to capture the intensity of teenage life through the eyes of Leo, a sixteen-year-old who sees the world in colours and finds out the heart-breaking truth about the girl he loves.
“When they’re not born out of silence, dreams become nightmares.”
Synopsis
Leo is an ordinary sixteen-year-old: he loves soccer, riding his motorbike, and hanging out with friends. School, however, is nothing but a bore, until a new philosophy teacher arrives. Unlike the others, this teacher encourages his students to dream big and live passionately, words that strike a chord with Leo.
Yet Leo’s life is shaped by colours. White is absence and loss, while red is passion, love, and the hair of Beatrice, the prettiest girl in school and the center of Leo’s dreams. Yet, there is another girl much closer to him: Silvia, his dependable best friend, who quietly supports him through everything. When Leo discovers that Beatrice has leukemia, the fears represented by ‘white’ suddenly become terrifyingly real.
“If any one of them stares back at me, I exist.”
My Thoughts
To be completely honest, I didn’t like this book very much. In YA fiction, I expect teen voices to feel raw and real. Leo, however, didn’t sound like a teenager at all. He and every other character spoke like philosophers or poets. Every sentence was a metaphor about life, love, or death, making it feel more like a performance than authentic dialogue.
Beatrice, the so-called love interest, never felt like a real girl either. She appeared almost saintly, speaking only in wisdom and metaphors. For a dying teenager, her voice was oddly detached from real teenage concerns. There was no mention of dating, milestones or the many experiences she would never have. This made her seem like more of a symbol than a character.
Also, Leo’s obsession with her bordered on uncomfortable. At one point he sneaks into Beatrice’s hospital room, touches her face as she sleeps, and even claims to a nurse that he’s her boyfriend. At the beginning of the book, he also made some comments about the girls in his school which honestly seemed like something out of the show ‘Adolescence’. Scenes like this made me want to put the book down more than once.
Finally, the English translation itself felt patchy and uneven, which dragged down what is already a short novel. I haven’t read the Italian original, so I can’t say if this is a problem of style or translation, but it left me largely disappointed..
In the end, while the metaphor of colours was creative and the ambition was clear, this novel did not didn’t deliver the authentic YA experience I was hoping for. If you would still like to give it a try, though, don’t let me stop you!
Happy Reading!
About the Author
Alessandro D’Avenia, born in Palermo in 1977, is a novelist, teacher, and screenwriter. He holds a PhD in Greek literature and teaches high school classics, a background that often shapes the philosophical tone of his writing. His debut novel, ‘White as Silence, Red as Song,’ became an international bestseller, translated into over 20 languages and adapted into a film. He continues to balance teaching with writing novels, screenplays, and newspaper columns.
Find more his Goodreads page!
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