‘Aspiring is not realism. It’s more playful than that, more exaggerated. Large characters, major events, huge emotions. No, I needn’t have worried. Aspiring is thunderously good—poignant, kind, funny and packed with story.
‘What questions could I ask of Wilkins? Maybe I’d have hung in with the basketball game—stayed until the end, been there for the key moment—but Wilkins hasn’t written a book about sports. It’s much bigger than sport, and anyway, he’s got a story to tell. And the sex scenes? I’d have gone for a more awkward interaction, but isn’t awkward teenage sex a cliché? What’s wrong with everything working in the correct order, with issues of timing being no issue at all?
‘Aspiring then. Full of fun, dressed inappropriately and leaping lightly from the highest branch. Forget YA — this is a book for all of us.’
Read the full review at Landfall Review Online here.
