Book Review: Over the Cliffs by Jace Kreamer.
Book Review
Over the cliffs by Jace Kreamer.
Wow. That’s really all I can say. I just finished this book a few hours ago. You know when you finish a book or movie and the ending or the entire thing was so good that when it finishes you’re just at a loss for words? You’re trying to come up with some intellectual analysis that’s not only stimulating but provoking, but when you go to mutter your intellectual statement, you turn to your friend and the only words that come out are “holy shit.”
That’s how I feel right now, except when I turned to my side to mutter “holy shit” the lady to my side just looked confused. I asked her if she had gotten to the end yet, she still looked puzzled. Apparently, not every Starbucks customer is reading Over the cliffs right now.
Which isn’t shocking, the nationwide pandemonium for this book isn’t exactly on par with Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey. The pandemonium consists of 4 amazon reviews. And It pretty much ends there. But that’s not to say Over the cliffs isn’t as good as either of those books, believe me it is. More so, people just haven’t found out about it yet. Like how Breaking Bad had been on AMC for several seasons before people cared, it’s not they didn’t like Breaking Bad, they just hadn’t heard of Breaking Bad yet.
And for whatever reason if somebody had come across this book while aimlessly scrolling amazon, it’s not exactly the most eye catching book. The cover looks like a Microsoft PowerPoint Slide from 1997 and the photo looks like it could have been taken with my dads flip phone camera. The cover nor the title imply anything about the story being about a runner or even an athlete for that matter. By the look of it, one may think they’re about to dive into a story about someone on a hike, maybe a rock climber. But surely not a runner and definitely not a runner in the situations the main character finds themselves in.
But in turn that’s also what makes this book great. Although maybe not intentional, the lack luster cover and title, are sort of metaphor to the entire story. Over the Cliffs is about a boy a young runner dealing with an eating disorder, trying to ward of suicidal thoughts, his addiction to fitness, and his attempt to physically and mentally run from the demons within his mind.
All things you would never know somebody is dealing with by simply looking at them. Things you would never know by walking by and creating your own judgments based solely on external features. Exactly, like this cover. By walking by, or scrolling past, because the cover doesn’t have an image shot with some two-thousand-dollar camera or created by an expert design team, you’re depriving yourself of 76 eye opening pages.
Jace Kreamer is pictured on the right.
Jace Kreamer, the author of the book is a collegiate runner at a Division 2 college in Pennsylvania. In his own words, he says “I wrote the book as a way to share my story and get stuff off of my chest. I wanted to put how I felt at my darkest times into words.”
Over the Cliffs takes the reader on a journey through the mind of a young runner, a young runner that stares at professional runners wondering why they don’t look the same. A young runner that is obsessed with numbers. Not only the numbers that appear on the results sheet but the numbers that appear when he steps onto a scale, the numbers in the nutritional information on food labels. Obsessed with the number of miles he runs every day; the number of push ups or sit ups he does. And if just one of those numbers isn’t where he wants, it’s as if a tsunami has entered his mind. Wreaking havoc on anything in it’s path.
Reading Over the Cliffs was like looking into a mirror. It was therapeutic, all of the things that consume me everyday were all of a sudden put into words, I couldn’t stop reading. I could easily put myself into the main character shoes, I knew everything that was about to happen next. Not because the book was predictable or because I was told the outcome, because I had lived it myself. And even though I had lived it, even though I had a good sense of the outcome. I couldn’t put it down. I’ve never been to therapy but I felt like I had entered a therapy session, like I was finally admitting the things that I’ve struggled with for so long. Things that I had sort of just coughed up to being “normal runner things” or “probably just a phase.”
Over the Cliffs takes the reader on a journey through the harsh realities of a path any runner, any athlete, any person can easily fall on to. This is not an uplifting book. This is an honest book. A book that I believe all athletes should read. But even more so, I believe this should especially be read by coaches and parents of runners and athletes. It can sometimes be hard to tell those that you love most what you’re going through, this book can do that without ever opening your mouth.
Running and working out can do wonders to your confidence, they can transform your body, help not only your cognitive abilities but your physical abilities. The benefits of the two are endless. But that does not mean the journey with the two is going to be a perfect marriage. There’s going to be hiccups and bumps in the road. Sometimes those bumps will seem like road blocks, it’s important to remember they’re not. And you’re not alone. And there may come times when you might not be able to get over those bumps by yourself, when those times arise, reach out for help. Somebody will be more than willing to guide you back to the path with endless benefits.
Over the Cliffs can be purchased on Amazon HERE
The kindle edition of Over the Cliffs can be found HERE
