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Anna's Reviews > The Radius of Us
The Radius of Us
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Told through two perspectives, The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt is an absolute gem.
We first meet Gretchen. Several months ago, Gretchen went through a very traumatic experience when she was attacked. This event completely altered the direction of her life. She had to start being home schooled and had difficulties going to other places. She tried medication, but it left her feeling more zombie-like than anything, and her parents disagreed on the effectiveness of psychologists which left her without any mental health professional to talk with about this situation.
We then meet Phoenix. Phoenix is an asylum seeker from El Salvador. Coming to the United States to escape a violent situation at home in El Salvador, he has been taken in by two married women in Atlanta, Georgia while he seeks asylum. He worries about his brother who has also come to the U.S., but they have been separated by the U.S. government.
On the day that their lives intersect, Gretchen sees him and experiences a flashback which leads to a panic attack.
Over the next several chapters, they actually meet and begin to become friends. Of course, their friendship is complicated because of a variety of factors–a boyfriend for Gretchen, Gretchen’s anxiety and past trauma, Phoenix’s asylum seeking situation, and the past that Phoenix is hiding.
Over the course of this book, I fell in love with both characters and was rooting for both of them the whole entire time.
I want to point out a few things. At first glance, it may seem that this book was going to treat Gretchen becoming friends with Phoenix as the cure for her mental health issues. This is NOT the case. People can certainly help other people, but a person is not capable of curing a mental illness. The reason why their friendship works so well is that Phoenix helps but never attempts to “fix� Gretchen. There is a huge difference there, and it is written very well.
I also loved that Marquardt wrote about the real situation within El Salvador. El Salvador has been in a gang war for many years. At one point, the daily murders decreased for a while because of a truce in 2012 between the two main gangs. However, this truce fell apart in 2014 for a variety of reasons. As such, El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world While Phoenix and Ari are fictional victims of this gang violence (and their story does show the real power that the gangs have in El Salvador) and the story is fictional, they do represent real victims of this gang situation and violence. From the acknowledgment section, it seems that the author worked with Salvadorans directly impacted as a result of the situation.
I definitely recommend this.
Final rating: 4.5/5
We first meet Gretchen. Several months ago, Gretchen went through a very traumatic experience when she was attacked. This event completely altered the direction of her life. She had to start being home schooled and had difficulties going to other places. She tried medication, but it left her feeling more zombie-like than anything, and her parents disagreed on the effectiveness of psychologists which left her without any mental health professional to talk with about this situation.
We then meet Phoenix. Phoenix is an asylum seeker from El Salvador. Coming to the United States to escape a violent situation at home in El Salvador, he has been taken in by two married women in Atlanta, Georgia while he seeks asylum. He worries about his brother who has also come to the U.S., but they have been separated by the U.S. government.
On the day that their lives intersect, Gretchen sees him and experiences a flashback which leads to a panic attack.
Over the next several chapters, they actually meet and begin to become friends. Of course, their friendship is complicated because of a variety of factors–a boyfriend for Gretchen, Gretchen’s anxiety and past trauma, Phoenix’s asylum seeking situation, and the past that Phoenix is hiding.
Over the course of this book, I fell in love with both characters and was rooting for both of them the whole entire time.
I want to point out a few things. At first glance, it may seem that this book was going to treat Gretchen becoming friends with Phoenix as the cure for her mental health issues. This is NOT the case. People can certainly help other people, but a person is not capable of curing a mental illness. The reason why their friendship works so well is that Phoenix helps but never attempts to “fix� Gretchen. There is a huge difference there, and it is written very well.
I also loved that Marquardt wrote about the real situation within El Salvador. El Salvador has been in a gang war for many years. At one point, the daily murders decreased for a while because of a truce in 2012 between the two main gangs. However, this truce fell apart in 2014 for a variety of reasons. As such, El Salvador is one of the most violent countries in the world While Phoenix and Ari are fictional victims of this gang violence (and their story does show the real power that the gangs have in El Salvador) and the story is fictional, they do represent real victims of this gang situation and violence. From the acknowledgment section, it seems that the author worked with Salvadorans directly impacted as a result of the situation.
I definitely recommend this.
Final rating: 4.5/5
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Reading Progress
January 20, 2017
– Shelved
January 20, 2017
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 21, 2017
–
Started Reading
January 21, 2017
– Shelved as:
mental-health-related
January 21, 2017
–
Finished Reading
