Greetings friends, I am super excited to announce that Lilyn from Sci-fi & Scary is back with another guest review here on Reader Voracious!
About the Book
Publisher: Bloomsbury YA | Release Date: February 4, 2020 | Pages: 320
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Science Fiction | Source: Publisher via Netgalley
As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, seventeen-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.
Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
Expertly capturing the thrill of first love and the self-doubt all teens feel, debut author Phil Stamper is a new talent to watch.
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Lilyn’s Review
I made my reading goal in 2020 to spend the entire year reading nothing but diverse voices. I also wanted to stretch my genre boundaries a bit. I love my sci-fi and horror, but sometimes you gotta read outside your comfortable little boxes. The Gravity of Us had just enough of the science part of my favorite science fiction (astronauts! Mars!) to make me think I’d be comfortable reading it.
And, look, real talk: I’m bisexual but when it comes to my reading material, I prefer heterosexual couplings. It’s weird, I know, but there it is. So I wasn’t sure how much I would enjoy a M/M romance. But I was going to give a try! ……and I’m so glad I did. Cal & Leon made my cold, black, withered heart go all mush-a-gush. They were cute! And even though I’m normally Yes! Burn the World! No Happy Endings! I think I would have rebelled if they hadn’t gotten a happy ending.
(I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by revealing that, surely? If so, oops, sorry.)
Every single one of the characters in this book that I was supposed to root for, I rooted for. When certain events happen that impact several people at large, my heart was so far down in my torso I’m pretty sure it was blocking the entrance to my…well, nevermind that. When everything started to crumble around Cal, I had icy feet for him. Man, by the climax I was burrowed down in my couch, ignoring the world, rooting for things to go the way they needed to go.
So much drama, so much contemporary, so much I normally turn up my nose at, but Phil Stamper made me see the good side of people, of now(ish), and reminded me that there are other people out there that still have all sorts of starry-eyes for the space program, no matter how screwed up our reality is right now.
Such a great read. Highly recommended.
Have you read The Gravity of Us yet? Does this book sound as good to you as it does to me (Kal)? Let’s chat!
I’ve really been wanting to read this, but I actually thought it came out last year and forgot about it a bit in the whirl of all the books that came out, so, I”m so happy to read this, so I can go buy it asap now lol
I also thought the book came out months ago because I have been seeing reviews for it everywhere! I honestly never really gave this one more than a cursory glance until Lilyn’s review and now I am mad I waited like an idiot.