2.5 stars
Sadly, it was just ok, I read the first quarter to a half properly before just somewhat skimming the rest. Taking the words in but not really. It was a very lyrical book but I just found parts of this to be weird. The book does defy alot of cliches though. After about 90 pages, I was restless and bored.


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Die Nacht von Shyness. Wildgirl trifft Wolfboy.
Sie möchte ein Abenteuer, er möchte ihre Nähe. Sie begeben sich nach Shyness, einem Ort an dem die Sonne niemals aufgeht.
Es wird eine Nacht, die sie beide verbinden wird.

Wildgirl ist in jeder Beziehung die Wilde. Sie weiß was sie will. Sie wird der Motor, der Wolfboy antreibt, der sonst in seinem eigenen Ich versinken würde. Beide haben eine Geschichte, die ihnen nicht guttut.
Im Laufe der Nacht findet Wildgirl eine goldenen Kreditkarte und Wolfboy wird sein Feuerzeug geklaut. Beides bringt sie dazu in die Barracken einer Kindergang einzubrechen und sich die Erinnerung wiederzuholen.

Ehrlich?
Dieses Buch war nichts für mich. Ich las ein Kapitel und musste es beiseite legen. Um mich dann wieder aufzuraffen. Und es dann wieder zur Seite legen. Es war schwierig. Wolfboy ganz in sich versunken, aber(natürlich) gutaussehend. Mit der kleinen Macke, dass er heult wie ein Wolf, aber niemand scheint sich daran zu stören. Und Wildgirl, die zwar nach außen hin immer einen frechen Spruch auf den Lippen hat, aber innerlich doch sehr traurig ist und (natürlich) auch sehr gutaussehend ist. Ein perfektes (optisches) Paar umspielt von einem Hauch Geheimnis und Tiefgründigkeit. Fast schon schmalzig. Obwohl ich die äußere Wildgirl irgendwie doch mochte, besonders in den Dialogszenen.
Insgesamt ist dieses Buch doch eher einer jüngeren romantischeren Zielgruppe gewidmet, auch wenn die Autorin sich wehrt mit Twighlight verglichen zu werden, spricht sie mit diesem Buch aber genau diese Zielgruppe an. Und die bin ich leider nicht. ( )

This Is Shyness gave me a very strange feeling, and I absolutely love its oddness. The cover is not very catchy (I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover), but the title just somehow caught my sleeve and screamed, “Look at me!” And well, I fell hard for it. Reading this book is like having a dream, a very captivating one, where the border between awake and asleep is so thin and fragile that the strangest thing become the most realistic. And the gripping adventure yet fill with stillness will steal your mind before you even realize it.

Shyness is a place where the sun doesn’t rise, literally, and only in that area, because right next to its border to Panwood, the sun still high and shine. It did once though, but for some reasons, it slowly stopped, and the Darkness come. Everything about Shyness is so fascinating, so exotic to me. There are many hidden secrets here, and the sun never rise high enough to expose them. Shyness gives people the creeps, but also the inquisitiveness nonetheless. I mean, who wouldn’t find a place where the 24 hours is darkness, sugar-addicted kids with monkeys roam the streets and abandon buildings, and people with moon-tan, unexcited right?

The story follows Wolfboy and Wildgirl, with their faithful encounter. Both are very similar in many ways, with unsettled issues that troubled them every night. When Willdgirl convinced Wolfboy to give her a tour around Shyness, this is when their adventure began, and they never expected what is coming.

I love Wildgirl. She’s smart, lively, and has a very unique character. She got herself into many dangerous situations, but not because of her reckless. She is the kind of girl who knows what is important for herself and choose wisely to either ignore or fight for it. There are many unanswered questions about her life, and that only makes me keep turning the pages just to know more about her.

Wolfboy is a very intriguing character, and we got to stay in his head quite a lot, and that just make me like him even more. He’s energetic, charming, and well, howl a lot (another unanswered question). All the details about him make you think you know a lot about him, but it turns out all strange and unexpected. You can see he cares for Wildgirl very much, and this couple is, well, oddly apposite. And it makes the book more interesting.

This book is a dream where you don’t want to wake up, an unforgettable experience. It captures you with all it whimsicality and unforeseen twists. This book is a living example for the quote “Books are portals to other worlds.” Leanne Hall has created a very special and unique dream, a kind of dream everyone what to experience once. And the ending… Well, let just say I’m lucky to have the second book in my hands right now, or I might go crazy with all the secrets.

I highly recommend this and excuse me, because I need to hide in my corner and happily “attack” the second book now.

Read this review and more on https://bookisglee.wordpress.com ( )

2.5 - sadly not for me.

The bizarre goodreads summary of this book combined with numerous (mostly positive) reviews left me feeling intrigued, excited and just a little bit apprehensive about starting [b:This is Shyness|8061032|This is Shyness (This is Shyness, #1)|Leanne Hall|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1271587590s/8061032.jpg|12741086]. I can deal with a certain type and level of weirdness, [a:Margo Lanagan|277536|Margo Lanagan|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1241999604p2/277536.jpg] is one writer of the bizarre that I can appreciate a lot, but in this novel the strangeness just felt a little ridiculous. I couldn't connect with the characters and, after the initial surprise at this very strange world I'd been introduced to, I became bored.

It must be noted that it was only the first half I read properly, the third quarter I skimmed, and the last I never made it to. I felt like the story didn't quite sit right in any world. For example, whilst reviewing [b:Divergent|8306857|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873996s/8306857.jpg|13155899] I pointed out that the book would have been more forgivable if it had been a fantasy, because anything goes in a fantasy world and the characters aren't subject to the same constraints and scrutiny we give to "real world" characters. Because they're supposed to be fantastical. But Shyness, though an imaginary town, is still set in the real world and it seemed out of place. Some other GR members have commented that reading [b:This is Shyness|8061032|This is Shyness (This is Shyness, #1)|Leanne Hall|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1271587590s/8061032.jpg|12741086] is like having a weird and wonderful dream... and yes, I can see that. But like having a dream, this novel didn't feel real, I didn't believe in the characters and the world of Shyness. It felt like a cross between Wonderland and Oz - two other dreamworlds - without being as exciting as either of them.

The entire novel is about the two protagonists - Wolfboy and Wildgirl - and their relationship with one another, as well as their own personal issues that they're trying to overcome. They go on a bizarre journey around Shyness as Wolfboy attempts to introduce Wildgirl to the town where the sun never rises. I like this idea in theory, the town of night reminded me a lot of Ixion in [b:Burn Bright|9433912|Burn Bright (Night Creatures, #1)|Marianne de Pierres|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1312805103s/9433912.jpg|14318452], but that was a novel where I felt a better connection to the characters and story - perhaps because it is set in a world nothing like our own.

In terms of writing, it is a very pretty and lyrical book (this is why I awarded the extra .5 star). I could quote you plenty of lines and, for now, just this one will do:

"I howl at the roof like a hotted-up bomb doing donuts, full of screeches. I howl like an air-raid siren, my arms stretched out wide. Howls are like songs. They can't be summoned; they just happen. They come from a place that I barely understand. And then something else climbs to the surface, something black and jagged, something from the deep. Imagine all your worse feelings surfacing. Imagine coughing up razor blades. Imagine not being able to stop the pain from coming out, and not knowing when it's going to end."

Unfortunately for [b:This is Shyness|8061032|This is Shyness (This is Shyness, #1)|Leanne Hall|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1271587590s/8061032.jpg|12741086], enjoying a book is about more than a creative writing 101 lesson, it's about more than beautiful metaphors and similes... but still, credit where it's due.

We all love Aussie young adult fiction, nine times out of ten it's brilliant, and some people will love this book. For me, I wanted something more, I guess I'm just not one of those readers who enjoys books that feel like I was constantly high while reading them. I think, for the most part, my love of aussie fiction belongs in the realistic category: [b:Raw Blue|6989576|Raw Blue|Kirsty Eagar|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266111020s/6989576.jpg|7231905], [b:On the Jellicoe Road|1162022|On the Jellicoe Road|Melina Marchetta|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1212708945s/1162022.jpg|6479100], [b:Good Oil|8079815|Good Oil|Laura Buzo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298925793s/8079815.jpg|12803237]... all the authors of these books have a talent for emotions and getting inside the protagonist's head, Wolfboy and Wildgirl couldn't live up to my high expectations following this.
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Holy Sweet Mother of dubs-tee-eff. I'm still wrapping my thoughts around this one. Here's what I've come up with: the Brothers Grimm meet up with Pablo Picasso during his Blue Period for a drink. They decide it's going to be a GREAT idea to make a Before Sunrise martini with a younger lad and lassie splashed with the Neverending Story and shaken with the surrealism of a dream.

You with me?

On second thought, I am not really sure if it's possible to adequately define This Is Shyness. Leanne Hall has managed to create something that feels entirely 'other'. You can't put the book into any neat little category; it's simply young adult, and that's about as far as you are going to in terms of categorizing.

The good news is that this cocktail goes down fairly smoothly. Hall's narrative swings through from start to finish, and Wildgirl and Wolfboy both are intriguing, resourceful characters who come to bat with their own set of problems. Wildgirl comes from a way-less-than-privileged background and is dealing with some serious B.S. at school because of it. Wolfboy is living in a singular pit of sorrow - you know the kind - it's the sort of hole a person has to fight and claw to get out of. It's a random night that these two find each other, and it leads into an absolutely crazy, no-rest-til-dawn adventure. Hall's writing really shines in her characterization of these two, and you will get to know them and their thoughts through the wonderful internal dialogue she gives to both.

Beyond that, it's difficult to discuss the book without giving too much away. Shyness is just over the border from where Wildgirl lives, yet she never heard how the sun doesn't rise there. The fact that you can't really pin down the setting makes reading the book feel a bit like falling down Alice's rabbit hole - you can't tell if this is an alternative reality, a futuristic setting, a paranormal community - everything feels familiar, but it's not - I won't say it's like a dream - it's a bit more maddening than that. It's something akin to Dorothy's returning to Oz and finding it turned upside down, or Mac's reaction to there being a 'secret' Dublin that's disappeared off of maps and been forgotten about in the Fever series. It's a familiar unknown.. I got the feeling that the darkness which encompasses Shyness is somehow connected to Wolfboy's sadness, who holds special status in that community. Or perhaps his sadness is a singular symptom of its overall origin. Things happen: embarrassments endure, deaths occur, addictions develop, social pressures constrict, etc. It's the self-determination and the connections with others, the support that gets you through. Shyness doesn't feel like a place of punishment for the things that have happened to you in life, but more like a place of suspension, a consequence of not talking about and moving through the things that have happened.

The balance and two-person dual narrations make this a fast-paced story that doesn't lag. The surreal situations and people they encounter hold your interest and sometimes boggle you. There is a play-counter-play between Wildgirl and Wolfboy's POVs, and it really offers insight into just how easily looks and words can be misconstrued, especially between two people who hold an attraction and growing affection between them. There is a sweetness in their vulnerability that helps you connect to them as characters. There is a bare bones honesty in their hushed confessions that make you repect their experience. I'd love to be friends with them both.

However, that same connection also drove me nuts with not getting clear answers to some questions. The upside is that This Is Shyness is so 'other', so unlike anything else that I've read, that it gave me the ability to 'just deal' with the lack of answers. Here's the thing with with this book: as with any new person you might meet, you have to take the book as it is. There is no comparing it, no standard to hold it up against, not with this story. It has a beginning, middle, and an end that doesn't feel like an end - it feels like a continuation. That's not to say that there is a sequel, because in all honesty, I get the feeling that there won't be one (although I would love answers to my questions). It's more like the characters are going to 'swing through' if that makes sense.

But, really, 'swinging through' does make sense in This Is Shyness. The story here is not in some neatly wrapped up plot; it's in the character details: the shy looks, the hanging conversations, the private confessions and resolute actions. They're like puzzle pieces that make up the same picture, but don't quite match up at the edges. You try to force the edges into each other, rather than just let them complement each other, then you are going to come up frustrated. But if you let the story just 'be' what it is, then you have something singularly special. This Is Shyness is the quirky friend you might never fully understand, but once you stop trying to figure it out and pick it apart, you will fall into it's unique personality and truly appreciate it for what it is. And the story is about two young people who don't find answers, but by coming together, they come to terms with facing the questions. There's a lot of beauty in that.

3.5/5 ( )