A World Without You by Beth Revis (review)

When Sofia commits suicide at a residential school for troubled kids, her seventeen-year-old boyfriend, Bo, is convinced she isn’t really dead and that he has merely sent her back in time. With her dark skin and her ability to disappear at will, however, he fears for her safety, since he took her back to seventeenth-century New England where she is likely to be condemned as a witch. This is an elaborate delusion, though; while Bo believes the school is for teens with special powers, his classmates actually suffer from pyromania, rage disorders, schizophrenia, and depression. Bo’s questions regarding his abilities and his explanations of time travel become attenuated as he tries to find a way to rescue Sofia, especially as nothing really happens other than his delusions becoming stronger over time. His sister, Phoebe, on the other hand, is solidly in touch with the reality of her brother’s mental illness and occasional violence, a reality she would like to escape. The book provides illuminating looks at both her mental state and Bo’s, and the premise is an intriguing one. However, the novel is essentially an extended description without a plot arc or payoff until the end, when everyone, including the doctor who had hoped to help the teens under his care, admits that they all need more intense treatment than he can give. This therefore lacks the finesse of the author’s Across the Universe series, but readers who are interested in depictions of how mental illness might feel from the inside and how it might affect a family may find this engaging.