[Review] Mia Sheridan - Kyland

Title: Kyland

Author: Mia Sheridan

Release date (in Poland): 2017-02-01

Pages: 320

Polish title: Bez Szans

Publishing house: Wydawnictwo Otwarte

It’s the second time I reached out for this title. The first time I had it, it was an ebook, few months afer it’s polish premiere, which was almost a year ago. I remember exactly how it broke my heart, made me think about it for another month. I decided to read it again at this moment, because I really needed something that was going to commove me. Kyland turned out to be perfect book. I got the opportunity for reflexion and through the whole night, I just couldn’t stop reading.

The author, Mia Sheridan, is not unknown for me. I have read many of her books, and this one, with Archer’s Voice, had taken my heart. She’s on the podium of my list of my all time favourite authors, since the first time I had her book in my hand. Mia Sheridan knows how to write original and moving novels. She doesn’t go for mushy stories about young love. Sure, the main characters of her books are usually young people. But she writes stories about deep feelings, often full of hurt and pain, yet worth fighting for. Her books aren’t cliché, she talks about difficult subjects, and every word she uses to describe feelings and emotions, enters our souls and makes us feel everything with every part of our body. That’s exactly how I felt reading Kyland.

When we think about USA, we think about a rich country – huge, expensive houses; succesfull companies, with registered offices all over the world; beautiful cities full of skyscrapers or beaches. Only a little of people realise that it’s just a part of how America looks. The part that media shows us. In this book, the author opens up our eyes for new perspectives. Who would have thought that in a beautiful state of Kentucky, there’s a small town Dennville, where there’s poverty, pollution, hunger and emptiness? Unemployment and lack of food on plates is just a part of the world Sheridan shows us in Kyland. She shows a different kind of world, the one that breaks out heart and makes us rethink everything we know.

Half agony, half hope. Half pain, half ecstasy. Half grief, half joy. Half my downfall, half my savior.

We meet main characters, Tenleigh and Kyland, when they are seventeen. They both fight to survive in a small mountain town. Tenleigh, together with her sister, takes care of her ill mom, while living in a small caravan. Life’s not treating her good, she dreams of not needing to worry about food everyday, of having her own shoes with no holes, of having her own home. She dreams of getting a scholarship and leaving the town, that is filled with so much pain and shame. Kyland clenches his fists and does everything no to let loneliness and despair devour him. He dreams of having a fridge full of food, of home, which isn’t filled with silence, loneliness and hurtful memories. After he loses everything, he does the best he can to leave Dennville after graduation and to forget the pain he had to go through. They both hold on to the last of their strenght to survive. But what happens if love stands in the way? Will they be able to sacrifice their dreams for the loved one?

They knew they’ll eventually go their seperate ways – that there’s no hope for a relationship, for a future together. They only have a few months together till they have to say goodbye and never see each other again. Kyland refuses to love and get engaged, because he doesn’t want anyone or anything to get in his way of leaving – till he realises how much he desires Tenleigh. She, contrary to his claims that he’s leaving, gives him her heart. What happens when the time to say goodbye comes?

- Go to hell.
- I do go to hell. Everyday. For you.

The author doesn’t create a cliché love story. Tenleigh and Kyland’s story moves since they first meet. It touches our hearts and tightly clenches it till the last page. Feelings they have for each other

aren’t simple. They’re full of pain, sadness, longing and dedication to create future for themselves.

I think that when enough time has passed, when you've survived that which you didn't imagine you could, there's a dignity in that. Something you can own. A pride in knowing the pain made you stronger. The pain made you fight to succeed. Someday, when I'm living my dreams, I'm going to think of all the things that broke my heart and I'm going to be thankful for them.

Kyland is a book full of emotions – hurt, misery and shame. But it’s so addicting I read in in one night. It shows that even in the worst cases, there’s always hope. You just have to fight and never let negative thoughts and feelings get you. Besides the sadness, I can’t forget to mention, that there’s also a lot of happiness and joy. We read about families that have almost nothing, yet they share every small thing with others. We read about the people, who selflessly give gifts to each other just to see the smile on another person’s face. We read about a feeling, which shows two people how to survive hard life. Which makes them find strenght in each other to live.

Sometimes my life felt so small. And I had to wonder why those of us who were given small lives, still had to feel pain so big.

I highly recommend this book. I think that everyone who’s looking for a beautiful love story will fall in love with Tenleigh and Kyland.

WYŚWIETL POLSKĄ WERSJĘ