The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
In this smart, heart-warming YA debut perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, two teens find love when their lives are uprooted for their parents' involvement in a NASA mission to Mars.
Cal wants to be a journalist, and he's already well underway with almost half a million followers on his FlashFame app and an upcoming internship at Buzzfeed. But his plans are derailed when his pilot father is selected for a highly-publicized NASA mission to Mars. Within days, Cal and his parents leave Brooklyn for hot and humid Houston.
With the entire nation desperate for any new information about the astronauts, Cal finds himself thrust in the middle of a media circus. Suddenly his life is more like a reality TV show, with his constantly bickering parents struggling with their roles as the "perfect American family."
And then Cal meets Leon, whose mother is another astronaut on the mission, and he finds himself falling head over heels--and fast. They become an oasis for each other amid the craziness of this whole experience. As their relationship grows, so does the frenzy surrounding the Mars mission, and when secrets are revealed about ulterior motives of the program, Cal must find a way to get to the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
MY OPINION: ****
This book was so cute! I finished it quicker than I thought I would and I wish there had been more to it. I loved reading about Cal and Leon and their relationship. It centers around space and a new mission to Mars, which wasn't the most interesting topic for me personally, so keep that in mind. However, I did truly enjoy this book and would definitely consider reading it again in the future!
Cal is a semi-famous vlogger/journalist who has half a million followers on an app called FlashFame, in which he reports the news and big events happening in New York. He's always loved the fast-paced, crazy, Brooklyn city life. However, when his father is chosen as one of the astronauts for the new space mission headed by NASA, Cal is forced to uproot his entire life and move to Texas, where the lifestyle is completely different from what he's used to. He has to leave his best friend and ex-girlfriend, Deb, behind, as well as his entire life.
However, in Texas, Cal meets the other astronaut's children and finds himself strongly crushing on the son of one of the main astronauts, Leon. He realizes that maybe Texas isn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, even though he was forced to leave his best friend behind.
Leon suffers from depression and has established clear boundaries for himself that doesn't allow Cal to immediately get close to him. Leon needs someone who's going to be all-in, completely and one-hundred percent, which distances him from Cal in the beginning.
Cal begins to clash strongly with a TV show that reports on the lives of the astronauts. They are a reality TV show that's more focused on the entertainment aspect than the scientific/space aspect of the mission. Cal realizes that they're fake and a lot of their content is staged. They try to censor his video platform, to which Cal rebels against and continues to report. He's had his entire future planned out but NASA and the space mission has changed almost everything for him.
I loved the relationship between Leon and Cal. It didn't feel too rushed or too slow-burning, and instead moved along at a nice pace. I liked how they first were distant from each other because of Leon's boundaries but soon learned to love each other for who they were. I also liked seeing Cal's journey in figuring out his identity, through his backstory with Deb and his past flame. It was interesting to see how he first started to question his sexuality before realizing his true self.
My least favorite aspect about this book was the space and NASA elements. Obviously, I knew going in that it was a book about space. I did like learning about the Orpheus mission and the role that each person played in it, but I felt like it was way too focused on space than on the characters. Cal seemed to lose the strong, unique personality he had in the beginning after he arrived in Texas, because he only seemed to focus on streaming his content for his millions of followers and viewers.
My last note is about Cal's relationship with his parents. His dad never told anyone of his secret aspirations to become an astronaut, which Cal seemed mildly hurt by. He realized that his father had secrets of his own that he had never told his own family, and this causes him to be slightly angry at his father for making them move away from home and live a life in the spotlight. His mother suffered from anxiety and Cal's father didn't seem to understand her, causing a lot of fights between them. By the end, they seem to be more understanding of each other but I would have liked to have seen more closure in their relationship.
I would recommend this book to readers looking for a cute romance spotlighting the LGBTQ+ community, influenced by space, NASA, and a mission to Mars.
Main Character: Cal
Sidekick(s): Leon, Kat, etc
Villain(s): Reality TV show, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was real to life.
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