We Are All Made of Molecules

June 01, 2017

Long time no see! I've been really lazy with reviews lately and I hope to make it up this month!






Author: Susan Nielsen

Genre: YA, Contemporary, Drama, Family

Blurb: Stewart is geeky, gifted but socially clueless. His mom has died and he misses her every day.
Ashley is popular, cool but her grades stink. Her dad has come out and moved out - but not far enough.

Their worlds are about to collide: Stewart and his dad are moving in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is trying to be 89.9% happy about it even as he struggles to fit in at his new school. But Ashley is 110% horrified and can't get used to her totally awkward home. And things are about to become a whole lot more mixed up when they attract the wrong kind of attention.

This book was set in Canada, which I found pretty interesting because I'm so used to reading American books. There was also a lot of British English in this book such as 'maths', 'biscuits', 'bums' (rather than butts) and others. If you Canadian people use these words, let me know.

So basically, my first reaction to the main characters was a typical reaction. I thought Stewart was nice, socially clueless and smart while Ashley was popular, mean and dumb. Of course, they turned out to be more than this.

Ashley's POV annoyed me a lot. I get that she was annoyed at her dad for leaving her family and I understand that she doubted if her dad ever loved her. Heck, I could even understand how she would take things out on Stewart. However, I felt she was over-dramatic and way too mean; calling Stewart a freakazoid when he was nothing but nice to her. Calling someone a freakazoid is not only rude, but is also totally lame. I mean, who says freakazoid? And I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her sheer stupidity sometimes.

"I hardly think Lauren's going to murder anyone," I told her. Claudia can be very dramatic.
"God, you're literal," she replied.
"Not really," I said. "I don't even like reading."
"Not literate. Literal," she said, rolling her eyes.

Stewart was easily my most cherished character in the novel. He was super weird, adorably sweet and smart! Honestly, if you're not used to really eccentric people, you might find him incredibly odd. I really liked his energy and his enthusiastic response to puns.


"What did one quantum physicist say to another quantum physicist when he wanted to fight him?" I whispered to them near the end of class. "Let me atom!"
As the novel progressed, Ashley slowly improved and was less rude to Stewart. <spoiler: Then again, he did introduce her to this guy who became her boyfriend. Jared. A total player...

I knew he was an 'eff boy'! And isn't it ironic that he calls Stewart gay often yet he was obsessed with pulling Stewart's shorts down? But that isn't any of my business >

Though the novel was very enjoyable, I felt that one of its weak points was its predictability and also the lack of character development in the side characters. I would have liked to know more about Stewart's best friend Alistair and also Phoebe.

If you're looking for diversity in a YA/children's book, then you won't be disappointed with this read.

Recommendation: 13+



3.5 stars out of five






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8 comments

  1. Hi Grace! I totally get feeling lazy with reviews because that is 100% me all the time *nods*. This sounds interesting yet somewhat cliched. I haven't read a lot of books set in Canada, but one I do remember was about a girl whose best friend gets pregnant and she has to help her friend hide the pregnancy because her parents are really conservative and her dad is a pastor. Anyway, nice review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi!

      Yeah, the clichéd part is so true xD Also, What book is that? The one about pregnancy?

      Thanks!

      Delete
  2. Huh, that sounds like an interesting story. I have to say, boys can often be the worst, although that doesn't mean I want to read about them that way. :P Still, sorry this book was predictable for you.

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  3. Nice review! Sorry it was predictable though. I think Ashley would annoy me too, although Stewart already sounds pretty adorable.


    Alexa
    thessalexa.blogspot.com
    verbosityreviews.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. As a Canadian, I can say that we don't use 'biscuits' or 'maths'. That's pretty Australian tbh. We do officially use British spellings though, like 'colour' and 'neighbour' although some people use the American spelling.

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    Replies
    1. Hmm... interesting. Maybe it was just a UK edition of the book.

      Delete

Keep it all clean, man. Well, if you really wanna curse, use minor swear words. And I mean the minorest of minor ones.

"Or what?" you ask in indignation.

"Or else."