Stewart Foster’s Pieces of Us makes itself at home in the uncomfortable space between childhood and adulthood. Told in the voice of the 17-year-old Jonas, a bulimic British teenager in the 90s, it is a story of growth – of both changing and learning to love the parts of yourself that maybe don’t need to change.
Pieces of Us is written as half-love-letter-half-eulogy to Louis, an outgoing older teenager whose friendship changed Jonas’ life. Coming into each other’s lives seemingly out of nowhere, the two’s bond is fast-made and strong, toeing the line between queer and platonic, descending at points into co-dependency. Together, the boys balance adulthood and artistic creativity, reaching a painful conclusion that sometimes you can’t have all you want without giving up the building blocks of your comfort zone.
Foster’s Jonas comes off as authentically 17 – both a strength and a weakness. He is immature, especially to start with, and his writing reflects that. The world he describes centres around him and Louis, pushing other matters to the background and justifying behaviours that the reader might not find the most sympathetic. Depictions of other characters suffer, making it difficult to imagine them as people in their own lives rather than props. The style grows with Jonas, becoming richer in the later chapters, but the realism persists. Even by the end, we are distinctly feeling that we are reading the words of a teenager.
If you enjoyed Perks of Being a Wallflower or Wintergirls, then Pieces will find a good home on your reading list.
Jes Paluchowska
Pieces of Us
Stewart Foster
Simon & Schuster, 2025
Hardback, £14.99
ISBN: 9781398535671
