I Fell in Love with Hope

I Fell in Love with Hope (2022) is the debut young adult novel of Lancali, the pen name of Lou-Andrea Callewaert. After his lover dies by suicide, Sam swears that he will never love anyone again. That is, until Hikari comes into his life and shakes up what he believes he knows about love and loss. Sam, Hikari, Sony, Coeur, and Neo must learn to live with their chronic illnesses while staying at a hospital. In the process, they learn what it means to be alive.

Lancali’s novel tackles difficult topics relevant to the 21st century teenager—such as mental health, chronic illness, strained family relationships, and the loss of loved ones. She uses an omniscient first-person narrator who is more than he seems.

This guide refers to the 2022 Simon & Schuster paperback edition of the book.

Content Warning: I Fell in Love with Hope includes discussions of domestic abuse, abortion, self-harm, and suicide.

Plot Summary

Sam stands on a bridge with his lover, also named Sam, who is about to die by suicide. The narrator Sam desperately tells his lover Sam his biggest secret in an attempt to stop the suicide—that he is not a real person, but rather a concept about the hospital that takes a physical form.