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perilous1's review
2.0
2.5 Stars
On the surface, this contemporary YA is a blended family story.
A year and a half after his mother’s death, a still-mourning 13-year-old named Stewart is uprooted from his childhood home when his father decides to consolidate households with the girlfriend he met at work. His new pseudo step-sister, 14-year-old Ashley, is grieving the breakdown of her own original family unit and has no interest in playing nice with the latest additions to her home. Will this domestic collage find a way to knit together, or fall apart at the seams?
We Are All Made of Molecules is a simply written crossover from Middle Grade to Young Adult—featuring an alternating first-person point of view from the perspectives of both Stewart and Ashley. The book is set in Canada (Vancouver B.C.), and the country-specific references are fairly frequent. The characters themselves come across as mentally on the young side of MG, while some of the content (repeated sexual assault, locker-room sexual harassment, casual underage drinking, and allusions to masturbation) is clearly better suited for a YA audience.
What I Liked:
Stewart was instantly likeable, despite his social impairments. He wore his disadvantages with total self-awareness and an admirable determination to improve himself by bolstering his weaknesses. He could continue attending his comfortable private school, at significant cost in money and commute time, but instead chooses to navigate the less sheltered territory of public school. Stewart reminded this reader of a more believable and endearing version of Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
This reader greatly appreciated the direct cautionary references to sociopathic behavior. Rather than promoting the naive and dangerous assumption that all people are “basically good” and can be reasoned with, it presented a primary antagonist who was cunning, cruel, and incapable of guilt. (I was glad enough at this to let slide the fact that he presented as a stereotypical rich jock.)
Though the mentioning of Stewart’s mother is brief, there the author manages to elicit a surprising depth of emotion from an economical use of words. The very beginning is especially heart wrenching.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
Ashley. Never has this reader encountered a more detestable or less sympathetic protagonist (and I use the term ‘protagonist’ very loosely.) Her voice is the literary equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
While Ashley is clearly one of the two main characters and consumes half of the POV space, this reader was hard-pressed to spend any time in her shallow, narcissistic, and dim-witted perspective. She is more caricature than character—half valley girl and half "mean girl" archetype. Not until 3/5th of the way through does she show signs of possessing any base human empathy. The more impatient readers may very well be driven to dread her chapters, and possibly even to want bad things to happen to her. Considering the fact that sexual assault is twice used as a plot device to force her otherwise stagnant character growth (and never constructively addressed or dealt with), I’m greatly conflicted over the message this inadvertently sends.
Those looking to this story for its purported humor may end up disappointed. What little humor there is could be best classified as childish—reliant upon base bodily function references, weak puns, and word mix-ups that seem entirely meant to denote either Stewart’s social ineptitude or Ashley’s excruciating lack of intelligence.
Also, it seemed glaringly obvious that Stewart landed somewhere on the high-functioning autism spectrum. But that issue is unfortunately never gone into other than to have him repeatedly declared “gifted” and a “nerd.” Sadly, this felt like a missed opportunity.
I would never complain of this normally, but the ending seemed almost TOO neatly tied up. As a result, the resolution felt lackluster and artificial. Add to that a predictable plot brimming with characterization stereotypes, and I’m afraid this pans out as an easily forgotten tale.
On the surface, this contemporary YA is a blended family story.
A year and a half after his mother’s death, a still-mourning 13-year-old named Stewart is uprooted from his childhood home when his father decides to consolidate households with the girlfriend he met at work. His new pseudo step-sister, 14-year-old Ashley, is grieving the breakdown of her own original family unit and has no interest in playing nice with the latest additions to her home. Will this domestic collage find a way to knit together, or fall apart at the seams?
We Are All Made of Molecules is a simply written crossover from Middle Grade to Young Adult—featuring an alternating first-person point of view from the perspectives of both Stewart and Ashley. The book is set in Canada (Vancouver B.C.), and the country-specific references are fairly frequent. The characters themselves come across as mentally on the young side of MG, while some of the content (repeated sexual assault, locker-room sexual harassment, casual underage drinking, and allusions to masturbation) is clearly better suited for a YA audience.
What I Liked:
Stewart was instantly likeable, despite his social impairments. He wore his disadvantages with total self-awareness and an admirable determination to improve himself by bolstering his weaknesses. He could continue attending his comfortable private school, at significant cost in money and commute time, but instead chooses to navigate the less sheltered territory of public school. Stewart reminded this reader of a more believable and endearing version of Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
This reader greatly appreciated the direct cautionary references to sociopathic behavior. Rather than promoting the naive and dangerous assumption that all people are “basically good” and can be reasoned with, it presented a primary antagonist who was cunning, cruel, and incapable of guilt. (I was glad enough at this to let slide the fact that he presented as a stereotypical rich jock.)
Though the mentioning of Stewart’s mother is brief, there the author manages to elicit a surprising depth of emotion from an economical use of words. The very beginning is especially heart wrenching.
What Didn’t Work For Me:
Ashley. Never has this reader encountered a more detestable or less sympathetic protagonist (and I use the term ‘protagonist’ very loosely.) Her voice is the literary equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.
While Ashley is clearly one of the two main characters and consumes half of the POV space, this reader was hard-pressed to spend any time in her shallow, narcissistic, and dim-witted perspective. She is more caricature than character—half valley girl and half "mean girl" archetype. Not until 3/5th of the way through does she show signs of possessing any base human empathy. The more impatient readers may very well be driven to dread her chapters, and possibly even to want bad things to happen to her. Considering the fact that sexual assault is twice used as a plot device to force her otherwise stagnant character growth (and never constructively addressed or dealt with), I’m greatly conflicted over the message this inadvertently sends.
Those looking to this story for its purported humor may end up disappointed. What little humor there is could be best classified as childish—reliant upon base bodily function references, weak puns, and word mix-ups that seem entirely meant to denote either Stewart’s social ineptitude or Ashley’s excruciating lack of intelligence.
Also, it seemed glaringly obvious that Stewart landed somewhere on the high-functioning autism spectrum. But that issue is unfortunately never gone into other than to have him repeatedly declared “gifted” and a “nerd.” Sadly, this felt like a missed opportunity.
I would never complain of this normally, but the ending seemed almost TOO neatly tied up. As a result, the resolution felt lackluster and artificial. Add to that a predictable plot brimming with characterization stereotypes, and I’m afraid this pans out as an easily forgotten tale.
quinnconnollysmith's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
kawarwick's review
5.0
This book has it all! Dealing with death, divorce, bullies, mean girls and a gay dad. I laughed it parts, I cried in parts and in parts my heart just hurt because kids can be so cruel!
sadieregnier's review
4.0
Bit predictable storyline, but two well-done perspectives and deals with a lot of high school issues in a short read.
bibliopxile's review against another edition
2.0
This book was a lot more mature than I was expecting. The "young-adult" rating is a little bit less of a rating than I'd give this book. For starters, Stewart and Ashley acted a lot older than their actual ages and were put in situations COMPLETELY inappropriate for them. There's sexual abuse involved, underage drinking, bullying situations, etc. The book overall was okay, but I can't deal with Ashley's "I'm on top of the world" personality and the other events. Would not recommend.
emily_reads851's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Was a good quick read but not the most exciting storyline if I’m being honest. Did still enjoy and the short chapters were a blessing
pattytru08's review against another edition
3.0
One thing I didn't like, was that the characters sounded a good few years younger than they were. It was sort of hard to get past, but this book did remind me of palacio's "wonder".
aylea's review
3.0
Stewart always wanted a sister, but it doesn’t look like things are going to work out for him when he and his dad moves in with his dad’s girlfriend and her teenage daughter. Stewart’s mom died only a few years ago from cancer, and Ashley’s dad recently came out as gay and is living behind the house. Stewart is also going to move from his school to the regular high school where being small and intelligent isn’t as acceptable as it was at his school for geniuses. Ashley worries about how “Spewart” will influence her friends and success on the social ladder, especially with her interest in Jared. When things with Jared get uncomfortable and the family is struggling to deal with their new life, Ashley and Stewart learn that even though everyone is different, everyone is also the same because we are all made of molecules.
The narrative voice is interesting and the concept of blended families who have come from difficult situations is interesting, but it is hard to know what the audience is for this book. The biggest problem with the book is the characters feel very young. It seems like they should be in a middle grade book, but there are content issues that make it inappropriate for younger audiences. The voice is light-hearted, but rape comes up twice, there is bullying, and a hate crime towards Ashley’s gay dad. All of these are quickly dealt with and forgotten. Many of these things are used as plot devices and are not handled well. Ashley is selfish and shallow with few things to redeem her. Some of the emotions are realistically shown, like how much Ashley struggles with her dad leaving their family and announcing that he is gay. It has strength in the narrative voice and the emotions of the characters, but its tone contrasting with the content will make older teenagers less likely to read it and younger teenagers not want to read its content.
The narrative voice is interesting and the concept of blended families who have come from difficult situations is interesting, but it is hard to know what the audience is for this book. The biggest problem with the book is the characters feel very young. It seems like they should be in a middle grade book, but there are content issues that make it inappropriate for younger audiences. The voice is light-hearted, but rape comes up twice, there is bullying, and a hate crime towards Ashley’s gay dad. All of these are quickly dealt with and forgotten. Many of these things are used as plot devices and are not handled well. Ashley is selfish and shallow with few things to redeem her. Some of the emotions are realistically shown, like how much Ashley struggles with her dad leaving their family and announcing that he is gay. It has strength in the narrative voice and the emotions of the characters, but its tone contrasting with the content will make older teenagers less likely to read it and younger teenagers not want to read its content.
heidimrogers's review
5.0
I cannot tell a lie. This book is 100% fabulous. ;)
True story: I laughed, cried, laughed A LOT, cried some more, got really angry, and had my heart warmed. I recommend this to all of my friends.
True story: I laughed, cried, laughed A LOT, cried some more, got really angry, and had my heart warmed. I recommend this to all of my friends.
akbusybee's review
5.0
A powerful book that reminds that no matter what choices we make we can change! A nice reminder that we are all made of molecules.