Aoibheann Sweeney’s debut novel, Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking, is the best coming-of-age novel I’ve read since Melanie Rae Thon’s Iona Moon.

Miranda Donnal lives with her father, a reclusive classicist translating Ovid’s Metamorphosis, on Crab Island off the coast of Maine. Miranda’s mother died when she was three, and Miranda has been raised mostly by her father and Mr. Blackwell, a Native American Indian who cooks, cleans, and nurtures the family when he is not fishing for a living. The relationship between the three is loosely-defined and delicately complicated as Miranda grows up.

The novel, like the passage from Crab Island’s channel to the dock at Yvesport, is driven by the undercurrents of what is felt but not said. When Miranda is sent to New York City to work at the classical institute her father co-founded, Miranda moves through poignant observations (families like to humiliate each other) to attraction (that full, pull excitement—that secret feeling, throbbing inside of us while the rest of the world stayed quietly oblivious) to intimacy (nothing had seemed interesting until there was someone listening).

Full of the rich symbolism of Greek mythology and peppered with keen statements about love and identity, Among Other Things, I’ve Taken Up Smoking explores the tension between societal expectations and individual need, the stories we tell ourselves and the stories we share with others, and the courage needed to take an alternate route.

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I loved this. It was a subtle coming of age novel, with a likable main character growing up in ways I identified with. And the juxtaposition of Miranda's relationship with Nate and with Ana was really well done. Also bonus point for non-tragic lesbians. ( )

Kind of a disappointing book. Although it calls itself a mystery, there is really nothing of the sort in this book. And furthermore, I found that the things that were known (the father, Miranda, Ana, Nick) in the book were so much harder to figure out (what are their motivations?) than the things that are unsaid (her dad was clearly in a relationship with Mr. Blackwell, etc.) I thought that all of the occurrences in this book were so serendipitous that it didn't seem at all realistic. ( )

I'm not sure exactly where the line is between young adult and adult fiction or how useful the distinction, but this book seemed somehow to fall into the former camp. It floats out some moments that seem like they might be interesting, then wafts them gently away. There is probably something difficult and admirable about writing with such a light touch, but I found myself frustrated that the novel, despite all the Ovid, doesn't transgress. ( )

Definitely will appeal more to the female readers in the audience. A woman coming of age book with a few interesting twists. I liked it. ( )