The Square Root of Summer
Author: Harriet Reuter Hapgood
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 322 pages
This is what it means to love someone.
This is what it means to grieve someone.
It's a little bit like a black hole.
It's a little bit like infinity.
When the fabric of the universe surrounding Gottie's sleepy seaside town begins to fray, she is hurtled through wormholes to her past:
To last summer when her grandfather, Grey died.
To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn't even hold her hand at Grey's funeral.
To the day her childhood best friend, Thomas, moved away, leaving her with a scar on her hand and a gap in her memory,
This summer, although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Grottie's past, present and future are about to collide- and be changed forever.
My review
Thoughts on the book: Upon reading the summery for The Square Root of Summer I quickly requested a copy and upon receiving it dived straight into reading it as I was that excited about it. I even put off putting off reading one of the books that I had just brought myself that I had been waiting forever to read to start it. Alas, unfortunately it didn't quite live up to you expectations. Although a very solid read, it just didn't do it for me no matter how hard I tried to like it. I found myself confused throughout the book and found that the story jumped around a lot, which ar times made me confused as to when it was and what was actually happening or why it was. It could be because the story it told from the main character, Gottie's past and present and sometimes you don't know whether you are actually in the past or the present because it jumps so quickly. The only way you kind of know is because the author has written the past tense in italics.
It could have also been because I didn't really connect with any of the characters. They all just either seemed to either be right out there or quite and reserved. They were all so different too and it seemed like more and more characters were introduced as the book went on and I got confused as to who was who in the end. The book also focuses on a bit of science fiction type writing, such as wormholes and time lapses and so forth which isn't really up my ally at all. I will occasionally dive into a book about time travelling but normally get bored very quickly. One thing I did like however was that Grottie's dad is German and my husbands Sadie is German too. So it was interesting to learn some new words.
It is a fantastic book though on how different people grieve when someone dies. Grottie's has kind of gone to the extreme end where she has basically shut out all thoughts of losing her grandfather, Grey and tries to go on with life like nothing has happened and focuses on the downfall of her so called relationship with her brothers band mate, Jason. I think everyone should attempt to read it and you never know you might like it more than me, you may even love it. This is simply jus my opinion of it.
Rating: 3/5
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