Stephanie

I heard so many glowing reviews about this book that I picked it up without knowing much about the story and ... yikes. I honestly could not get through this book. Cheryl's story from page one just oozed self-destruction. Yes, she experienced some serious difficulties and it sounds like she didn't have a great support system around her. However, she blames all of her problems on others and misplaces the blame on the people she drove away with her behavior. It truly breaks my heart that she has such a self-hate for her body and her life. For a self-proclaimed feminist, she uses her body as if it's a tool rather than her own flesh. I skipped to the end of the book to see how it ends and sadly although she learned lessons about perseverance, it sounds like she still has a lot of work to do on her heart before she can ever be happy on her own. She writes the story years later and glorifies all the horribly depressing bits as if they were fond memories. It sounds like someone who has not accepted their past and really refused to learn from her destructive ways. If this were a close friend I would have interrupted her story, pray for her and hope that she finds a good therapist to work through the amount of emotional baggage she clearly shoved into her backpack and never took off.

Welp I read this in less than 3 hours so any book that makes me do that is an automatic 5-star, but after thinking on it a bit more, I changed it to 4 - let's call it 4.5. My only advice: Go into this blind.

If you liked the show Fringe, the book Hail Mary or just like science thrillers in general, you'll enjoy this one.


Ok, spoilers ahead...


I do think this book would have benefited from being a little longer. The characters weren't fleshed out as much as they could've been, but this is 100% a plot-driven book so it is successful without it.

I like the overarching question of what makes us, us. And I liked the simplicity of the science so that it doesn't get too garbled by the story itself.

I want to know what happened to the other characters a bit more and I wish we had a bit more of a finalized look at the family's situation. It felt a little odd to have them leave the “home” that Jason had been hunting for the whole time but also I have no idea how you would go about ending it otherwise so I can't fault the author too much on that. I wanted more Amanda and I think the multiple Jason's things was a bit... rushed? Idk, some of it felt a bit off at the end.

I feel that the son and Amanda were both only used as plot devices. Even the main character felt a bit flat. The only one you really cared about was the wife and only because she was innocent and kept getting hurt.

I found out the author is a screenwriter which makes a lot of sense considering how the book is written and even the scenes fit into a movie idea. I would compare this to Ready Player One, Project Hail Mary, or The Martian. I wouldn't be surprised if this one becomes a movie down the line.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and it kept me wanting to read more until the very last page. It's a fun, thrilling, and quick read so you might as well give it a chance.

I'll be upfront in my review here: I am not a democrat. I was not old enough to vote in the first election that Obama won, and for his second one, I did not vote for him. That being said, I have always found it insanely important to read books for both sides of the aisle, if only to humanize the people that we see in the media every single day. It's so easy to forget that the people in our White House, and leading our nation, are just regular human beings.

I really loved this book and Michelle has lived a full life filled with amazing people and community around her. She speaks often on how we are all very much the same. We have the same homes, hopes for our kids, dreams for our careers. The main reason I can't give this 5 stars is because of her divisive language, mostly at the end of the book, that paints republicans as the bad guys.

I understand that a lot of the stress about her children, safety, hatred pointed towards her family, and specifically her husband, came from the Republican side of the aisle. I commend her on the grace that she maintains throughout the book when talking about these issues. But it is harmful to see her point Republicans at the whole, rather than a few people who are responsible for those actions.

As a conservative, I rarely agreed with the politics of Obamas, but I deeply respect their love for people and their decisions made as parents to protect their girls. I am not a fan of trump at all, but I think most politicians, like most people, are just trying to help people in the way they think will yield the best results - how we get there is the main divide.

I wish this book had ended with the same grace and love as the first 90% but it just felt too politically charged toward one party rather than the few bullies with the loudest voices.