Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
The world is shrinking, and you’re the only one who notices.
Shaun David Hutchinson one again uses science fiction tropes as an allegory for the most complex human experiences; and, once again, it is a massive hit. Dealing with issues of anxiety and self worth when left by someone you love, this book uses the shrinking of the world as an allegory for the feeling of isolation.
Hutchinson is sarcastic and witty and funny; however, he also has a voice that can communicate the loss of first love, and the world feeling like it’s ending around you, even if no one else knows.
Shaun David Hutchinson one again uses science fiction tropes as an allegory for the most complex human experiences; and, once again, it is a massive hit. Dealing with issues of anxiety and self worth when left by someone you love, this book uses the shrinking of the world as an allegory for the feeling of isolation.
Hutchinson is sarcastic and witty and funny; however, he also has a voice that can communicate the loss of first love, and the world feeling like it’s ending around you, even if no one else knows.
just some (pointless) thoughts
i really liked this book, like more than we are the ants??? i didn't realize that this had actually come out a year after that book but i was honestly expecting something similar but it was way better in my opinion. we are the ants was still good but just not as fleshed out i felt. it didn't have the impact on me that i thought it would. ATEOTU was different however.
first, i liked the sci-fi element of this book way more than we are the ants. the shrinking of the universe was brought up way more than the aliens in we are the ants, and it felt more important that way. it was also just really fun to read about... it made for some really fun scenes. i also really liked the way it resolved. i imagined the ending would be a little more open-ended but i thought the explanation worked and you got hints of it the whole way through.
second, the characters just seemed way more real and fleshed out. ozzie was a great protagonist, lua was amazing, dustin was great, calvin seemed very real, and even tommy was fleshed out for how little scenes there were with him. i was very happy with the diversity of gender identity in this book and how casual it was. it felt authentic and not pandering. (if that's what that means)
third, i really liked the emphasis on how plans can change and things don't always turn out how you're expecting them to. i know this always happens in books, but in a lot of YA, characters will go through a ton of challenges and then get into their dream college and be able to pay for it and everything's fine... it's so not realistic and i get sick of reading stories like that. this book didn't sugarcoat how messy life is but how it's fine and you just need to work with it. (i really resonate with this message right now, i just graduated high school but let's not talk about it)
basically the concept of not being able to understand the world is really resonating with me right now. feeling like you have no control over the world but still feeling like you're somehow the cause of everything bad that's happening is a feeling that i don't see a lot in books, and it just made me feel very comforted or whatever.
one thing that i did think was weird was that you didn't learn until halfway through the book that tommy was black? it was implied so you kinda had an idea but then as soon as it was mentioned tommy was talking about the problems he was facing because of his race and i just wish it was brought up earlier so the discussion didn't seem so sudden? it also didn't really come up again so that wasn't great...
but all in all this book still had a lot of good discussions about teenage behavior (?), mental illness, depression, suicide, sexual orientation and gender identity and questioning either of those, and also family issues and the challenges of relationships and being too dependent on one person
also READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END. i thought it was great.
i really liked this book, like more than we are the ants??? i didn't realize that this had actually come out a year after that book but i was honestly expecting something similar but it was way better in my opinion. we are the ants was still good but just not as fleshed out i felt. it didn't have the impact on me that i thought it would. ATEOTU was different however.
first, i liked the sci-fi element of this book way more than we are the ants. the shrinking of the universe was brought up way more than the aliens in we are the ants, and it felt more important that way. it was also just really fun to read about... it made for some really fun scenes. i also really liked the way it resolved. i imagined the ending would be a little more open-ended but i thought the explanation worked and you got hints of it the whole way through.
second, the characters just seemed way more real and fleshed out. ozzie was a great protagonist, lua was amazing, dustin was great, calvin seemed very real, and even tommy was fleshed out for how little scenes there were with him. i was very happy with the diversity of gender identity in this book and how casual it was. it felt authentic and not pandering. (if that's what that means)
third, i really liked the emphasis on how plans can change and things don't always turn out how you're expecting them to. i know this always happens in books, but in a lot of YA, characters will go through a ton of challenges and then get into their dream college and be able to pay for it and everything's fine... it's so not realistic and i get sick of reading stories like that. this book didn't sugarcoat how messy life is but how it's fine and you just need to work with it. (i really resonate with this message right now, i just graduated high school but let's not talk about it)
basically the concept of not being able to understand the world is really resonating with me right now. feeling like you have no control over the world but still feeling like you're somehow the cause of everything bad that's happening is a feeling that i don't see a lot in books, and it just made me feel very comforted or whatever.
one thing that i did think was weird was that you didn't learn until halfway through the book that tommy was black? it was implied so you kinda had an idea but then as soon as it was mentioned tommy was talking about the problems he was facing because of his race and i just wish it was brought up earlier so the discussion didn't seem so sudden? it also didn't really come up again so that wasn't great...
but all in all this book still had a lot of good discussions about teenage behavior (?), mental illness, depression, suicide, sexual orientation and gender identity and questioning either of those, and also family issues and the challenges of relationships and being too dependent on one person
also READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END. i thought it was great.
Okay: for the most part, I really liked this book. Most of this book was 4 stars, solid. I loved We Are the Ants; this book is very similar in that it's sci-fi-ish but mostly contemporary, and deals with loss. In a way, it was nearly too similar - I found both protagonists to be largely the same.
Nevertheless, it was a good book, and it explores a lot of really complex and difficult subjects intertwined with the plot of the universe shrinking, though the sci-fi aspect wasn't as well integrated as I had hoped. Ozzie was a good, sarcastic character; I really enjoyed his narration. Calvin ... oh my god, I loved Calvin and wanted to hug him; he was probably my favourite character. Lua was incredibly badass and so cool.
I really appreciate the diversity - Hutchinson has always written about gay teen boys, but nearly every major teen character is queer - genderfluid, bisexual, asexual. I'm a bit disappointed that the asexual character came at the expense of stereotyping an East Asian boy, making him super smart and asexual.
And now: the ending.
Nevertheless, it was a good book, and it explores a lot of really complex and difficult subjects intertwined with the plot of the universe shrinking, though the sci-fi aspect wasn't as well integrated as I had hoped. Ozzie was a good, sarcastic character; I really enjoyed his narration. Calvin ... oh my god, I loved Calvin and wanted to hug him; he was probably my favourite character. Lua was incredibly badass and so cool.
I really appreciate the diversity - Hutchinson has always written about gay teen boys, but nearly every major teen character is queer - genderfluid, bisexual, asexual. I'm a bit disappointed that the asexual character came at the expense of stereotyping an East Asian boy, making him super smart and asexual.
And now: the ending.
Spoiler
This is the main reason that I knocked it down a star. Because for everyone but Ozzie, nothing in the story fucking happened. It made the story feel inconsequential, and it was never explained in any way. I really wish we'd gotten an explanation or consequences; I wish that Calvin and Ozzie's relationship still remained in some way, and I wish that everything that happened during most of the book still resonated with the characters at the end. It felt futile.
4.5 Stars ~ Shaun David Hutchinson’s The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley is one of the best books I read last year, and is also right up there at the top of the list of my favorite Young Adult novels. Hutchinson has a way with allegory that transcends his target demographic and speaks to that once awkward and pained teenager in all of us. Once again, he does so with great success in At the Edge of the Universe, and, once again, with endearing and real characters who represent a diverse world.
As Andrew Brawley was a metaphor for the five stages of grief, At the Edge of the Universe is also a beautiful and often painful journey through the symbolism of Oswald Pinkerton’s shrinking world. What that journey represents, however, you’ll have to discover for yourself. If I were to reveal it to you, it would spoil the entire reading experience and I don’t want to do that, but suffice it to say that I questioned Ozzie’s sanity right along with his parents and the alphabet soup of therapists he makes his way through. This is a story that each reader needs to personalize and it is, indeed, one that will resonate beyond the borders of age, gender, race, religion or sexuality. Ozzie is a puzzle every reader needs to solve on their own as he reveals each piece of himself along the way, and it’s not overstating the fact that it took me almost the entirety of the book to decipher him and the definition of his ever-changing universe and what it represented. Once I did, though, it made the story all the more poignant and effective.
Ozzie is on the cusp of making that giant leap into the vast unknown, from high school to college, when a few short months is the difference between child and adulthood. In the midst of the anxiety of an obscure future, he’s also dealing with divorcing parents, a brother who’s joined the military, and a boyfriend who has not only disappeared from the face of the earth but also a boyfriend whom no one but Ozzie seems to remember ever having existed—not even Tommy’s own mother. It’s a lot for an adult to process, let alone a teenager, and Hutchinson’s writing, as always, is respectful of his audience and their intelligence. He doesn’t speak at his readers, never talks down to us or preaches his message, but he speaks to his readers, and anyone who’s read even a few Young Adult fiction novels knows and appreciates that difference.
As Ozzie wends his way through the trials and tribulations of a life on the brink of certain upheaval, with uncertainties waiting for him at every step, he’s also coping with his growing attraction to a boy who is deeply scarred. Calvin Frye had it all together just the year before—athletic and handsome and intelligent—but has changed in such drastic ways that his existence is more shadow than substance as he navigates around the periphery of a life that threatens to consume him. Feeling as though he’s being unfaithful to Tommy, Ozzie is pushed and pulled by his warring feelings for and about Calvin. Their relationship is at once sweet and stilted, and their friendship at times painful to witness—if Ozzie is a sympathetic character, Calvin broke my heart—but, it’s this relationship that begins to draw Ozzie out and forces him to see a world that exists outside of his own experiences. The halcyon days of Ozzie’s memories of his first love are woven into the stark reality of the present and provide a perfect contrast between that often fragile shift of child to adulthood. And, the end twist as Ozzie takes that one giant leap into the future was such an unexpected and unique turn in the story.
At the Edge of the Universe is not a light read, spending time in Ozzie’s head is not supposed to be easy—being a teenager rarely is, is it? Being a teenager who isn’t heterosexual or, like some in this cast of characters, cisgender or WASP, even less so. These characters aren’t here to satirize the high school experience or sanitize the issues they face. In fact, there’s a saying that goes, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle,” and this is a lesson that Ozzie learns through a lot of trial and error, not to mention a best friend and a brother who aren’t afraid to point out that the world doesn’t revolve around him.
This novel, like life itself, is a roller coaster. And that’s a metaphor in the story that I can reveal without spoiling this lovely bit of Young Adult fiction.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach Reviews
As Andrew Brawley was a metaphor for the five stages of grief, At the Edge of the Universe is also a beautiful and often painful journey through the symbolism of Oswald Pinkerton’s shrinking world. What that journey represents, however, you’ll have to discover for yourself. If I were to reveal it to you, it would spoil the entire reading experience and I don’t want to do that, but suffice it to say that I questioned Ozzie’s sanity right along with his parents and the alphabet soup of therapists he makes his way through. This is a story that each reader needs to personalize and it is, indeed, one that will resonate beyond the borders of age, gender, race, religion or sexuality. Ozzie is a puzzle every reader needs to solve on their own as he reveals each piece of himself along the way, and it’s not overstating the fact that it took me almost the entirety of the book to decipher him and the definition of his ever-changing universe and what it represented. Once I did, though, it made the story all the more poignant and effective.
Ozzie is on the cusp of making that giant leap into the vast unknown, from high school to college, when a few short months is the difference between child and adulthood. In the midst of the anxiety of an obscure future, he’s also dealing with divorcing parents, a brother who’s joined the military, and a boyfriend who has not only disappeared from the face of the earth but also a boyfriend whom no one but Ozzie seems to remember ever having existed—not even Tommy’s own mother. It’s a lot for an adult to process, let alone a teenager, and Hutchinson’s writing, as always, is respectful of his audience and their intelligence. He doesn’t speak at his readers, never talks down to us or preaches his message, but he speaks to his readers, and anyone who’s read even a few Young Adult fiction novels knows and appreciates that difference.
As Ozzie wends his way through the trials and tribulations of a life on the brink of certain upheaval, with uncertainties waiting for him at every step, he’s also coping with his growing attraction to a boy who is deeply scarred. Calvin Frye had it all together just the year before—athletic and handsome and intelligent—but has changed in such drastic ways that his existence is more shadow than substance as he navigates around the periphery of a life that threatens to consume him. Feeling as though he’s being unfaithful to Tommy, Ozzie is pushed and pulled by his warring feelings for and about Calvin. Their relationship is at once sweet and stilted, and their friendship at times painful to witness—if Ozzie is a sympathetic character, Calvin broke my heart—but, it’s this relationship that begins to draw Ozzie out and forces him to see a world that exists outside of his own experiences. The halcyon days of Ozzie’s memories of his first love are woven into the stark reality of the present and provide a perfect contrast between that often fragile shift of child to adulthood. And, the end twist as Ozzie takes that one giant leap into the future was such an unexpected and unique turn in the story.
At the Edge of the Universe is not a light read, spending time in Ozzie’s head is not supposed to be easy—being a teenager rarely is, is it? Being a teenager who isn’t heterosexual or, like some in this cast of characters, cisgender or WASP, even less so. These characters aren’t here to satirize the high school experience or sanitize the issues they face. In fact, there’s a saying that goes, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle,” and this is a lesson that Ozzie learns through a lot of trial and error, not to mention a best friend and a brother who aren’t afraid to point out that the world doesn’t revolve around him.
This novel, like life itself, is a roller coaster. And that’s a metaphor in the story that I can reveal without spoiling this lovely bit of Young Adult fiction.
Reviewed by Lisa for The Novel Approach Reviews
I am really glad this book was published on my birthday, because it's a really great birthday present.
Spoiler free reasons to read this book:
* Queer representation up the wazoo. Discussions about the subject.
* Mental health representation, of the excellent, complex variety.
* A sci fi story that doesn't get too involved with the sci fi and doesn't forget the story.
* S P A C E. T H E F I N A L F R O N T I E R. NOW, IN YOUR BACKYARD.
It's just a great story, written if not beautifully then prettily, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Spoiler free reasons to read this book:
* Queer representation up the wazoo. Discussions about the subject.
* Mental health representation, of the excellent, complex variety.
* A sci fi story that doesn't get too involved with the sci fi and doesn't forget the story.
* S P A C E. T H E F I N A L F R O N T I E R. NOW, IN YOUR BACKYARD.
It's just a great story, written if not beautifully then prettily, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
This is a spoiler free review of At The Edge of The Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson, a standalone realistic fiction novel with sci-fi elements.
I gave this novel 5/5 stars, and I highly enjoyed it.
Plot
“Life’s truest horror is a door that slams shut that can never be opened again”
At The Edge of The Universe follows seventeen year old Oswald Pinkerton after his boyfriend Tommy Ross vanished.
But Tommy didn’t just vanish, he disappeared from history and Ozzie is the only person who remembers that he ever existed.
Now Ozzie is trying to navigate life in a world without Tommy, a world in which the universe is shrinking rather than expanding, and a world in which the answers he seeks come from unexpected places.
General Thoughts
“Just… don’t get so focused on where you’re going that you forget the people you’re traveling with. There’s no point reaching a destination if you arrive alone.”
This is the third book by Shaun David Hutchinson that I’ve read, and I have loved them all. The story was very captivating and left you wanting to continue to read more all the way through to the ending.
Something I really liked in this novel are the connections to We Are The Ants, which is my favorite novel and is also by Shaun David Hutchinson. The two books are set in neighboring Florida towns, and there are two instances in which the stories connect. One of these scenes even included two characters from the We Are The Ants, while the other was a mention of the book itself.
Characters And The Ending
“Phones are doors into our lives, and the government keeps copies of all the keys”
This novel, like all of Shaun David Hutchinson’s others, is filled with diverse characters, which I really enjoy reading about.
The characters were all very compelling, and even the side characters felt fully fleshed out. The friendships and many of the challenges within these relationships felt realist for the situations that the characters were in.
My favorite character was probably Calvin Frye, a student from Ozzie’s physics class that he is assigned to work with on a roller coaster making project. Throughout the novel, Calvin become a major presence within Ozzie’s life his past becomes intertwined with Ozzie’s future.
The ending of the novel was done especially well. It tied up enough of the story for it to feel complete, but left enough of it undone for the reader to fill in and imagine the rest. Throughout the novel, I was not fully sure of how the ending would be done, considering the plot and the situations of some of the characters, but it closed off the story and ended in a very good way.
Final Thoughts
“I didn’t even need to check my phone to know that the universe had shrunk again, and that the stars had vanished.”
Shaun David Hutchinson is quickly becoming my new favorite author, and this book only added to the fact. If you enjoyed any of Shaun’s previous work, or like reading emotional contemporary novels, I would completely recommend this book.
I gave this novel 5/5 stars, and I highly enjoyed it.
Plot
“Life’s truest horror is a door that slams shut that can never be opened again”
At The Edge of The Universe follows seventeen year old Oswald Pinkerton after his boyfriend Tommy Ross vanished.
But Tommy didn’t just vanish, he disappeared from history and Ozzie is the only person who remembers that he ever existed.
Now Ozzie is trying to navigate life in a world without Tommy, a world in which the universe is shrinking rather than expanding, and a world in which the answers he seeks come from unexpected places.
General Thoughts
“Just… don’t get so focused on where you’re going that you forget the people you’re traveling with. There’s no point reaching a destination if you arrive alone.”
This is the third book by Shaun David Hutchinson that I’ve read, and I have loved them all. The story was very captivating and left you wanting to continue to read more all the way through to the ending.
Something I really liked in this novel are the connections to We Are The Ants, which is my favorite novel and is also by Shaun David Hutchinson. The two books are set in neighboring Florida towns, and there are two instances in which the stories connect. One of these scenes even included two characters from the We Are The Ants, while the other was a mention of the book itself.
Characters And The Ending
“Phones are doors into our lives, and the government keeps copies of all the keys”
This novel, like all of Shaun David Hutchinson’s others, is filled with diverse characters, which I really enjoy reading about.
The characters were all very compelling, and even the side characters felt fully fleshed out. The friendships and many of the challenges within these relationships felt realist for the situations that the characters were in.
My favorite character was probably Calvin Frye, a student from Ozzie’s physics class that he is assigned to work with on a roller coaster making project. Throughout the novel, Calvin become a major presence within Ozzie’s life his past becomes intertwined with Ozzie’s future.
The ending of the novel was done especially well. It tied up enough of the story for it to feel complete, but left enough of it undone for the reader to fill in and imagine the rest. Throughout the novel, I was not fully sure of how the ending would be done, considering the plot and the situations of some of the characters, but it closed off the story and ended in a very good way.
Final Thoughts
“I didn’t even need to check my phone to know that the universe had shrunk again, and that the stars had vanished.”
Shaun David Hutchinson is quickly becoming my new favorite author, and this book only added to the fact. If you enjoyed any of Shaun’s previous work, or like reading emotional contemporary novels, I would completely recommend this book.
One of the best books I have ever read! Shaun David Hutchinson is a brilliant author!