As interesting as the concept was, this book didn’t live up to its name. Sam was a cool character, for sure. They are themselves, they have a supportive parent and they’re just trying to get thru school like everyone else. except they’re magic. Again, the concept was undoubtedly cool. However, the book itself was slow, boring and I couldn’t keep my head in it for too long at all.

At first I thought this book would be depressing because Sam's trauma is clear and present from page one, but it turned out to be nothing like I imagined. Instead, it’s an addictive YA mystery with lovable characters finding their people and growing up in a world that doesn't always make a place for them. Trauma does rear its head (rightfully so), but queer joy is also frequently present.

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester is an absolutely amazing book. The non binary and autistic representation is so good, I could relate really well to Sam. There were a lot of little details about the representation that made me really happy, like Sam avoiding eye contact and the fact that everyone talks a lot about pronouns and stuff.
I also really enjoyed the writing, and the book overall was just very fun to read.

Well. I'm kind of overcome with emotions. I almost cried in the grocery store checkout lane because I listened via audio and timing wasn't my friend.

I felt safe reading this book. I think that that's a really interesting thing because that is my first response. And for me this book was all about queer safety and queer living. How wanting to live is so much more than taking a breath everyday. It is feeling comfortable in your own body and mind and feeling safe in the environments around you. It's feeling safe with the people around you. It is having the ability to smile and laugh and cry and dance and jump and thrive and live. And even though this book is about a lot of other things, for me that sense of queer vitality was at the core.

Sam is an autistic aspec nonbinary queer teen and they have just moved to a new town after the experienced a horrendous near death experience. Sam has a special interest of kids that died before they were 19 and maybe it sounds a little bit morbid but when you move into a house where a kid died in the room you're staying in and you end up working to solve his murder, it's not quite so morbid. I love Sam so much and one of my favorite parts of this whole book is their relationship with their dad.

I have read a lot of asexual and aromantic books at this point and I am always shocked when I encounter a new type of asexual and aromantic representation. Sam's dad is aroace and I cannot describe how important that representation is. I loved the fact that he adopted Sam and didn't ever conform to hetero or amatonormativity.

There is a mystery / paranormal element to this that I think worked really well. It keeps you guessing until the end and even if you think you know exactly what happened I truly believe that you're going to be surprised.

Content warning for violence and attempted murder. There's a first person account of what Sam dealt with at their last school that could be intensely triggering for some folks so please be mindful.

The Many Half-lived lives of Sam Sylvester
You will discover YA book parent of the year in this beautiful book with such perfect inclusion with a MC that is an authentic nonbinary teen. I am in awe of Sam’s story. This approach to the exploration of queer identity while reading about a riveting murder plot line was just fantastic.

This is really a unique and one of a kind story, with Sam that has just moved away from a horrible twist of fate, and discovers himself in a very infamous house where a murder took place. Sam sets out to find out what really happend, and solve this 30 year old murder mystery. This book kept me guessing until the last page!

I really wanted to love this, especially because there's so little nonbinary and/or autistic representation in books (especially from authors who are nonbinary and autistic, too!), but unfortunately even the amount of love I held for the diversity in these characters couldn't redeem this story from how much the narrative voice and writing dragged it down.

Not only did the dialogue and characters feel stilted and flat much of the time, but the romance struck me as entirely unnecessary. I love a romantic subplot and it's very rare that I wish a book had skipped it altogether, but Sam and Shep didn't have any romantic chemistry and the formation of their relationship felt rushed and one-dimensional. The friendships between Sam and the other side characters were also difficult to connect to, with the only real exception being the surprising level of warmth I felt towards the unlikely closeness between Sam and Aiden.

I feel terrible for complaining so much, but while we're at it, while the mystery did keep me engaged, the killer reveal was predictable and their motive was anti-climactic. A slight spoiler here: [based on the reoccurring theme of hate crimes, I fully anticipated the killer's motive to be rooted in that same plot, yet it wasn't, and for some reason it left me feeling like the entire book had carried out all of this trauma for a half-formed purpose in the end. (hide spoiler)]

All of the negatives aside, there were a few things I loved, and the greatest of these was, without a doubt, Junius Sylvester. Sam's dad is an absolute shining beacon of wonderful parenting in a world of books full of lackluster or terrible fathers, and the fact that he was also ace/aro and a Black man (who occasionally touched on topics important to him specifically, such as the eggshells he walks on in his daily life to avoid being seen as a "problem") was an added bonus on top of his unconditional love for Sam and his delightful dad jokes. Honestly, 5 stars for Junius alone.

Altogether, The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester is a book that I had high hopes for, but it fell short on almost every front. While I'll still recommend it heartily to anyone looking for great nonbinary, autistic, and asexual rep (as Sam themself is also ace!), I wouldn't go into it looking for a fully cohesive story or a thrilling mystery.

2.75 rounded up to 3 stars

i really wanted to love this book, and at first i did!, but there was a lot that made it hard for me. multiple different plot lines going on that felt like the novel couldn’t decide which particular genre or focus it wanted to have. and while the book is a contemporary, all of the references got annoying quick and made me roll my eyes.

another thing that bothered me was: a lot of moments felt very “and then everyone clapped” fake tumblr story to me. and there pretty much was one. which, yeah, this /is/ a story, but… it just could’ve been done better.

all in all, i think this would’ve been better if there wasn’t so much happening, because it just feels like there is a Lot happening. i enjoyed sam’s friend shep, but often forgot about sky, the other main friend. sam’s father was a DELIGHT and seemed very comforting. sam is such a lucky person to have that support in their life and i hope everyone can have someone like that in their life. sam themself was fun! from the hair to the tattoo, they’re a very unique person. definitely someone i could see myself befriending, and someone i can relate to, anyways.

i really wish i loved this as much as i wanted to, i just wasn’t able to. but despite that, i still encourage anyone who’s interested to give the book a chance! i still was intrigued by the story despite my issues with it, and the writing was easy and helped the story go by.

thank you netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book*

Sam is a non-binary and autistic teen who is trying to start anew in a new town and at a new school after something horrible happened at their old school. But soon Sam tries investigating the death of the kid who lived in their house 30 years ago and to whom they share a weird connection.

This might sound as if this would go in the direction of fantasy but the novel is firmly rooted in YA and offers great queer and autistic rep. As a non-autistic person who is surrounded by autists, it was great to be able to look into their heads a bit. Of course this book offers just one perspective but it was interesting nevertheless. I also liked that Sam wasn't autistic so that they could sherlock holmes their way out of the mystery, Sam just happened to be autistic but this did not make them better at solving the crime.

Entertaining so 3.5 stars

Almost, almost is the theme with this book. Everything is almost a possibility, everything almost happens. As a debut novel, MacGregor shows promise for future projects and I’m excited to see them!

This book was a great read, the narrative voice felt so distinctive and real, and I adored the relationship between Sam and their dad. The LGBTQ+ rep was great and as a massive Queen fan, I adored the Freddie Mercury references!

ARC was given by NetGalley & Astra Publishing House in exchange for an honest review.

This review is being published after the release date (May 3rd, 2022)

Content/Trigger Warnings: Talk of near death experience, talk of death, talk of murder, hate crimes, talk of racism, mentions of cancer (in the past), mention loss of loved ones (in the past), grief, trauma/PTSD, self-harm, alcoholism, underage drinking, mentions of biphobia/bi-erasure, transphobia, homophobia, misgendering, ableism, bullying, stalking, emotionally abusive parents, anxiety & panic attacks, mentions of car accident, scene of emesis, poisoning, scene of anaphylactic shock, scene of strangulation, gun violence




I have been sitting on this review for a few days now and trying to decide how to convey my disappointment with this book. I really, really wanted to love this book especially because this book has so much representation we often don’t see in literature. I was so ecstatic about the synopsis and my curiosity was running wild with what the pages of this book would contain. However, I’ve been left unsatisfied and wondering if I even read the same book as everyone else because this was a huge flop for me.

“I’m not afraid of death because the living are much scarier, even the ones who aren’t trying to kill you.”

Our story follows Sam Sylvester, a non-binary teen who just moved to the town of Astoria. This move is supposed to be a fresh new start for Sam to recover from a trauma and hopefully this school will not only be more understanding of Sam’s gender, but also help accommodate Sam due to them being autistic. But as Sam starts making friends with the kids of the club for all the queer folk at school, things begin to heat up. After finding out a local kid was murdered in their home, Sam and friends decide to investigate what really happened, but things start to take a serious turn as they get closer to the truth.

I think my most favorite thing about this whole entire book was the relationship between Sam and their father, Junius. The bond and connection between Junius and Sam was so special, so wholesome, and it was the highlight of the entire book. Every scene that we had with them made me so emotional and so mushy, so soft, and it was a wonderful experience. Plus, the dynamic between Sam and Junius is one we don’t often see in literature. Sam is Junius’s adopted child and when I tell you how emotional I got over the memory flashbacks for the two of them coming together, it had me dissolving into a puddle. It was really wonderful being able to see those memories and how the two came together. The other dynamic is the single father household dynamic. This is representation we don’t often see in literature and deserves to be recognized for what it is. Seeing a single father household and seeing such a close-knit relationship between the main character and their father was such a breath of fresh air, and I just had to point out how much I really loved this about Sam and Junius.

“This is why I will never understand how people think family is as common as blood. To me, family is breath, it’s trusting the person besides you to demand your right to air in a world that would take it away from you.”

Speaking of representation, this book has so, so much representation. As I already mentioned, our main character, Sam is non-binary (they use they/them pronouns), autistic, and ace. There’s also so many side characters who bring so much diversity to the table. Mister Quach is Vietnamese and the teacher of the Queer club, Shep is Latinx and bisexual, Sky is bisexual, and Junius (Sam’s father) is Black, asexual and aromatic! I also want to take a moment to point out Aiden comes from a home of poverty/financial struggle and there’s so many moments of conversations surrounding this. I wanted to point this out because in middle grade books we often see things from a child’s perspective or even see financial struggles in the young adult/adult perspective, but we never see things from a teenager in high school especially from a teenager who has a high social status in school. This really hit home for me for a lot of reasons and I really wanted to give this the attention it deserves. Plus, Aiden as whole is an underrated character and deserves a lot more love.

“You have nothing to prove. To anybody. You are who you are.”

Sadly, these are about the only two really redeeming qualities that I really loved and enjoyed throughout this entire book. Again, I really wanted to love this book because those two things were so strong (which is why this book got the rating it did), but my love for those two things is not enough to overlook all the issues with this book as a whole. And friends, there were a lot of issues with this book.

One of the major things that really impacted this book was the writing and narrative of the voice. I can’t begin to express how important it is to have the right tone especially when it comes to contemporary and mystery books. The way this book dialogue felt more like a middle grade book and the way it fell flat made it incredibly hard to find motivation to read this book. There were many times where I wanted to ‘dnf’ this book because it felt like I was trudging through quick sand. Plus, the pacing felt very choppy in the sense of it would feel slow and then fast, then go back to slow. It was just an around rough time. This ties in with the ending as well. The ending felt rushed and a lot of the things that came to light felt swept under the rug and the most typical consequences being used to deal with the actions of others.

“That’s just it – people get jealous, of the popular kids, of the ones who get attention because they’re nice. And kids are cruel. Even if they don’t mean to really hurt someone, well. Impact matters more than intent.”

The other major issue with this book was how predictable the killer was going to be. I love a good mystery book and I won’t lie, the mystery had me invested. I really wanted to know what the truth was going to turn out to be and I was invested in how everything was going to play out. However, by 17% into this book I already had three predictions of how this book was going to go and sure enough, I was right with two of those. Not only was the killer made really obvious, but the execution of leading up to the reveal was an entire mess. The very foundation for almost 50% of the book it’s hinted that the main reason was a hate crime and by the time we get to the 75% mark in the book, that whole foundation was scrapped for something else entirely. And what it was changed to was just a mess because the author had to rush to fill in gaps with all new information. It felt like a poor execution all around and it made the reading experience even worse.

I feel terrible for all this complaining and ranting, but this is only scratching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues. There’s a whole romance in this book between the main character and a side character that greatly lacked chemistry. Not to mention it felt like instant attraction between the two characters and things were really rushed between them. This is one of those times where I wish the author would have left the romantic subplot at home because this subplot literally caused this book to feel like it was trying to do too many things all at once. There’s also an entire conversation between Sam and a side character named Dylan about asexuality. When I say I had the most extreme second-hand embarrassment, I’m not kidding because I was cringing. I wish that conversation would have never happened, the scene felt entirely unnecessary, and I wish I could erase it from my mind. Not to mention the author wrote this side character to put all this pressure and blame/reason on Sam for why they were questioning things and feeling confused. It was one of the most awkward moments of this entire book (not that things weren’t already really awkward with this side character to begin with).

“They’re here with me because I found their stories, and this is the lesson I needed to learn from them.”

Overall, I was really excited and had high hopes for this book, but oof this book hurt my soul. And honestly, I should know better not to put my hopes too high when it comes to books I read due to this happening. This book fell short in so many categories and again, I wonder if I even read the same book as other readers because I’m definitely in the minority when it comes to my feelings with this book. If you’re looking for a book that has a cohesive story or a solid mystery plot, then I would recommend looking elsewhere. However, if you’re look for diverse representations like ace, non-binary, etc… then definitely give this book a chance.


The quotes above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

#bookreview The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor

I was given an eARC of this book by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

☺️ the good ☺️
- This book is about many things and manages to succeed at all of them: a mystery, story about an autistic teen, a queer non-binary teen, a story of healing… it does a lot in its pages.
- Sam is lovable. They come alive off the page and they are strong and brave and just such a great character.
- Shep. I love how her and Sam immediately want to know each other. Maybe it’s just attraction, but I think they both saw something more there.
- The awkwardness of first love/first relationship.


🤨 the bad 😒
- I got a little bored in the middle when it was kinda focusing more on their romance/friendship with Shep for a bit. I think at that point I wasn’t sure what we were waiting for. I didn’t really care about Billy 🤷🏼‍♀️ and I thought it was just a thing for them and Shep to bond over. I didn’t really think they could solve a thirty year mystery.


😍 the beautiful 😍
- I really enjoyed the ending. It was very satisfying.
- Junius. Sam’s dad. He’s the actual best. He adopts them on his own and he raises them on his own and he accepts them and supports them unconditionally. He deserves the best and he’s an incredible parent.


rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#bookstagram

I desperately wanted to love this book, but I struggled throughout with the horrific hate crime Sam had to endure. There should be content warnings on this book, so that readers are not consistently triggered by what was a truly horrific thing to happen to Sam. I kept having to put the book down and come back to it later as Sam (understandably) relived their experience, and it took away from the solving of the murder for me.

this is super enjoyable YA mystery with amazing representation! the mystery aspects were well developed and interesting to read about. I adore the main character and the queer and nonbinary representation was very relatable and well done overall. this was a very fun read that I would recommend to all.

thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Great 4⭐️ YA mystery!!

-Sam is a non binary teenager who is autistic and queer (they/them pronouns)
-Sam and their Dad move into a new house where a mysterious “accidental” death happened. Sam and their friends don’t buy this—they decide to investigate themselves. 🕵🏻‍♀️
-Single Dad—adopted Sam when he was older. Supportive and positive relationship, great to see in a YA book!
-LGBTQ+ side characters were wonderful—loved the group of friends (Shep and Aiden especially!)
—spooky vibes and the ending was satisfying!

Thank you to the publisher + NetGalley for the ARC—looking forward to reading more by the author!

Oooh I was so excited about The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester, and Maya MacGregor totally delivered! Not only do we get an autistic, non-binary MC, but their new town ends up being shrouded in mystery, and we get to go along for the sleuthy ride. I loved this YA novel! I will say, I don’t disagree with some reviewers that, at times, the prose could get a little overly descriptive and could have been more captivating by doing more showing and a bit less telling, but I also think that’s just something authors master with time. This was clearly a story MacGregor wanted to make sure they told thoroughly and in all its detail, so I understood it from an artistic standpoint. This isn’t necessarily a thriller, but the elements of mystery were just enough to balance out whatever momentum got slowed down by the prose.

Highly, highly recommended! Thank you so much to Astra/Penguin for this e-arc. I’d recommend it to nearly anyone!

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester is a YA thriller about teenage Sam who is nonbinary (they/them pronouns). I read a YA thriller after a long time.
Sam is recovering from some trauma that was caused in their previous school and with their dad has moved to a new school that will hopefully be more understanding of Sam's gender and accommodating since Sam is autistic.
Sam ends up meeting some kids from the Rainbow club and makes friends. But as they settle into their new house, they find out someone was murdered in it before their dad bought it.
Sam with their new friends starts investigating on who could have murdered this kid 30 years ago. Although the whole town believes it was a tragic accident. Sam has their doubts

THE MANY HALF-LIVED LIVES OF SAM SYLVESTER is a YA mystery about an autistic non-binary teen who moves into a new house only to find it previously belonged to the victim of an unsolved *supposedly-accidental* death, which they are now determined to solve.
It's an intriguing story with a hint of paranormal activity that any ghost enthusiast would enjoy. The characters are well developed, and the dialogue between the high schoolers felt so real, incorporating current slang and references, which really helped bring them all to life. The mystery had me thinking I had it solved a couple different times, and I was still surprised in the end! Overall I enjoyed it a lot!
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book!

I got an ARC of this book.

I tried, but I just couldn't get into it. There is so much telling and no showing going on. Add in some of the lines are just really, really bad "Sting-y" is used because a character is a Scorpio for example.

There were things I really liked, like the Autistic rep wasn't just quirky. Sam hurts their dad at one point, they don't mean to. There are things like that that were wonderful to see.

The Many Half-lived Lives of Sam Sylvester features:

• a nonbinary mc changing schools
• a mysterious death in a small town buried by time

Seems good, right? It's exactly what drove me to read it. There's that feeling of "hmm this smells like a good mystery and I want it"

As much as I want to say it delivered, tho, for me it did not. It was more contemporary fic than mystery, and I get that. The author must have wanted to incorporate issues such as bullying and gender in this book, but to me it seemed like it overpowered the plot, therefore leveling down the suspense from a mystery.

Lastly, the writing could get overly descriptive sometimes, it makes the scene feel so long and therefore dragging [me]

Apart from that, however, I have no other issues. I freaking love Sam's father very much.

2 stars for this book, I'd still very much recommend it because I want to know what other people would think about it.