Release

Title: Release
Author: Patrick Ness
277 pages 
Date published: May 2017
Genre: YA Supernatural/Fantasy
Book description: Adam Thorn doesn’t know it yet, but today will change his life.
Between his religious family, a deeply unpleasant ultimatum from his boss, and his own unrequited love for his sort-of ex, Enzo, it seems as though Adam’s life is falling apart. At least he has two people to keep him sane: his new boyfriend (he does love Linus, doesn’t he?) and his best friend, Angela.
But all day long, old memories and new heartaches come crashing together, throwing Adam’s life into chaos. The bindings of his world are coming untied one by one; yet in spite of everything he has to let go, he may also find freedom in the release.

So the story is told from 3rd person which is cool and we do not get inside voices of the characters, also it doesn't have changing POV something I truly like in books. So our main characters are:
Adam obviously, he's a teen with serioues self-esteem issues. He is insecure mainly due to his extremely religious family. His father is a preacher, his mother the wife of a preacher who thinks mainly about appearance above all else and his perfect older brother who is everything their family ever wished for.  Adam is not only self concious about the typical teenagy stuff add to that the fact he is gay in a family where everything needs to be just so in order to follow with gods will- but things get a turn for the worse. He has an altercation with his boss, Wade, who not only comes onto him but treathens the teen.... if he does not comply he's simply out of work. Adam's family is not on the best terms, not only relationship wise but economically. If the guy wants to go to collage and live until graduation without too much hassle he needs to work.
Angela, is Adam's best friend adn the girl his family hopes he will one day marry. She's the kind of best fried everyone wants, she is a good listener and trustworthy, always advicing Adam and ecouraging him. She does not like labels and has a very forward relationship with her parents, something Adam kind of envies in a good way.
Enzo, is Adam's ex. He's an ass and as the remembrance goes you go from aww they're over to damn bastard, why does Adam even care about him again? Worst kind of boyfriend, I mean really no one should be treated like that.
Marty is Adam's older brother. He is the golden boy of the family. He wants to become a priest and is really just annoing to be around. I kind if dislike him for not being a good older brother, they're supposed to protect and care for their sibilings. He tries to mend that mistake at the end so he earns some points. 

There are things I simply do not like about the story and some that I loved. First, I like the friendship in it, Angela and Adam are the best of friends ever, I love them so much. My feelings of dislike for Adam's family is inversely proportinal to that, I absolutely hate the Thorns, not like drop dead kind of hate because they beat their kids or anything like that, but their closed mindedness and the lack of admittance to their mistakes. They do not accept their son the way he is and supposedly love him, yet the loving Christian parents always find a fault in him. When Adam has a huge issue instead of backing him up and defending him  Mr. Thorn acusses him and blames him for it. A son or daughter should never feel judged when they pour their soul out to the parents, sholdn't be doubted and accused of provoking others to harm them. It is inconceivable!
Ok it really isn't inconceivable per say; unfortunate in real life is just the same. Sometimes the people closest to you (biologically speaking) are not the ones to protect and care for you. This is an unsavory reality but it is ours nonetheless. 
This part of the story is not my favorite but it made it all seem so realistic so I really appreciate the author portraying it. It rarely gets to be included in Ya or any book for that matter; we get a lot of harassment discussed in books but only on female targets and no one ever mentions males as the intended target. It is a reality as well and we can't just pretend it doesn't happen. 
But then we have a second story taking place at the same time. We have a ghost and a couple of supernatural beings on the lose on the small town of Frome. I like it, the story develops slower but it builds up the tension and anxiety, you keep waiting for the original story (Adam's) and the ghost's to entwine but they never do. That part was actually frustrating. In my opinion both are good but if they are not to be merged there was no need to place them both in the same book. Maybe if it had been longer or the ghost had had a better ending then it would have made it perfect as it was the only thing going for it was that the ghost and Adam learned the same moral, to let go. So if you strech it does ind of make sense... but not too related.

Overall I liked it very much, I gave it a 3.5 stars out of 5. I highly recomend it at the very least because of the not too widely explored way that abuse of power and harassment is explored in it and the obvious diversity of characters, the fight against homophobia and pro acceptance this novel encourages. Also it is a very quick read, you can get through it in a single day ;)