A review by cheraquili
Unteachable by Elliot Wake

4.5

 

"And I felt something I’ve never felt before.
You can call it love, or you can call it freefall. They’re pretty much the same thing."

4.5/5 stars

This is probably one of my favourite romances of all time!!!

I mainly love this novel so much because I ADORE the writing! It is extremely lyrical in a metaphorical way, which I love. In fact, I honestly feel that I would not have loved this novel as much as I did if it were not for the incredible writing.

"I’m not going to do the whole rollercoaster/falling in love metaphor. I didn’t fall in love with him up there. Maybe I fell in love with the idea of love, but I’m a teenage girl. This morning I fell in love with raspberry jam and a puppy in a tiny raincoat. I’m not exactly Earth’s top authority on the subject."

On the other hand, although it started great, like other romances I have read, I felt that this was too much of an insta-love story; I wanted them to contemplate their decision regarding their relationship more, giving that there was so much at stake. Additionally, I usually read romances exceedingly fast, whereas with Unteachable, I did not feel inclined to pick this up. Indeed, I spent 6 whole days reading this.

That’s another thing about lies: if you convince yourself they’re true, they become true. A lie is a discrepancy of belief, not fact.

Something which I think could have been improved upon is if there had been a dual perspective. With this writing style, readers would have been able to know both of the main character's points of view. However, the ending of the novel was PERFECT, which explains why I ended up giving this 4.5 stars.

Having said all that, I surely want to re-read this book because I read it over a month ago. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes brilliant, lyrical romances!









Other quotes I liked:

I smiled at no one, sauntering past stalls stuffed with popcorn and pretzels and corndogs, flavor ice and cotton candy. The air was drugged with sugar and salt. It made my head spin.

I stood in the rain, watching his car go. A string tied to it looped around my heart and pulled tighter and tighter until it sheared clean through.

Somewhere in the universe, two hearts reached out and connected.

It’s amazing how much you can communicate without words.

I was walking between classes on the first floor when we spotted each other in the hall. We both stopped. It was as if the lights dimmed on the river of bodies streaming around us, and we were the only two people left in full color.

“I love your mom,” I said as I followed him upstairs.
“That’s because you don’t know her yet.”
I plucked that word out of the air and clutched it to my chest. Yet.

He was built like a bear, more hair on his hands than his scalp. He nodded at me silently. Hired muscle.

Siobhan smiled at me. But as we turned back to the carnival, her eyes held mine, and I knew that she knew. Everything.

No kiss. No bombastic love ballad swelling from hidden speakers. Just a simple declaration in a dark room that was beginning to lighten.

The brain is an incredible multitasker. At the same time that it’s piercing itself with superheated needles of anguish, it’s ruthlessly making plans, contingencies, plotting out a future, giving zero fucks whether it’ll ever see it. On the day I die, it’ll be calculating what to have for dinner as it bombards itself with pain signals from my amputated legs or my clocked-out heart. And so, when I stopped crying, I wiped the snot off my upper lip and took out my phone.