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oraclereadings 's review for:
The Gravity of Us
by Phil Stamper
<blockquote><b><i>
“Don't aim to fix people. Fixing seems so permanent, so absolute. Like there's no room for error. Aim to make things better.” </i></b></blockquote>
Calvin prides himself as being a social media journalist—on a fictional app that I imagined being TikTok. He has a huge following and has worked on some very important stories, one including the fall of a political campaign.
He has his whole future planned out. He knows what he wants to do with his life.
And then one day his dad is just like, "Hey, we're going to Texas. I'm going to be on a reality tv show centered around a NASA mission to mars." and it fucks up Calvin's entire world. The moment that they get to their new home, Calvin goes live to update his followers on what's happening and informs them on the situation with his dad.
The actual media gets involved! Cameras swarm his house and new reporters are asking questions. But they're not there for the reality show, they're don't have any interest in Calvin's dad. They're more interested in Calvin and his online celebrity status.
This, of course, upsets Calvin's dad because this was supposed to be his big moment to shine and instead his son is the one in the spotlight.
Leon's family has been on the reality tv show for years. Their family is well known across the country. Leon is especially known for being an Olympic gymnast, but he has long left that chapter in his life behind. The constant nagging from the media has gotten to him and Leon doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, all while struggling with depression.
I really did not like Calvin. At All. <b>MILD SPOILERS AHEAD</b>
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
At the beginning of the book, Calvin states that he was dating this girl (Deb) and that he found out he was gay (or bisexual? I actually don't remember if it states in the book) by cheating on her with another guy. This is treated as not a big deal and everyone totally cool with it. He and Deb stayed friends and Calvin plans to move into an apartment with her in New York once they both graduate. That plan alters a bit when Calvin's family moves to Texas. There’s multiple times that Deb tries to call or text Calvin to check in on him but he just ignores her. And then has the <i>AUDACITY</i> to call her and be like "listen to my problems, my life is so hard and unfair". Meanwhile, this girl is supporting her parents while they live off of her income and take her money.
Just, no. I can’t.
The romance was just not there. It’s insta-love, of course, so maybe that’s why it was so unbelievable. Half of the time, Calvin is trying to <i>fix</i> Leon and push him into choosing a career because they’re seniors in high school and college is around the corner. Buddy, chill. Not everyone knows what they wanna do after high school. Not everyone <b>GOES</b> to college <i>right after</i> high school
Their relationship even felt like Calvin was just with Leon so that he could "make him happy" or some shit. I don’t know. Leon, at one point, even says something along the lines of, "Don’t kiss me because you want me to feel better. Kiss me because you want to kiss me". YES! You tell him!
Calvin also mentions that his mom and dad are fighting constantly, but there is no actual fighting. Like, there’s hardly even any arguments. He’s just so privileged and has life so good that he seem to realize that everyone around him is falling apart while dealing with their own problems.
━━━━━━━━━━☽✰☾━━━━━━━━━━
“Don't aim to fix people. Fixing seems so permanent, so absolute. Like there's no room for error. Aim to make things better.” </i></b></blockquote>
Calvin prides himself as being a social media journalist—on a fictional app that I imagined being TikTok. He has a huge following and has worked on some very important stories, one including the fall of a political campaign.
He has his whole future planned out. He knows what he wants to do with his life.
And then one day his dad is just like, "Hey, we're going to Texas. I'm going to be on a reality tv show centered around a NASA mission to mars." and it fucks up Calvin's entire world. The moment that they get to their new home, Calvin goes live to update his followers on what's happening and informs them on the situation with his dad.
The actual media gets involved! Cameras swarm his house and new reporters are asking questions. But they're not there for the reality show, they're don't have any interest in Calvin's dad. They're more interested in Calvin and his online celebrity status.
This, of course, upsets Calvin's dad because this was supposed to be his big moment to shine and instead his son is the one in the spotlight.
Leon's family has been on the reality tv show for years. Their family is well known across the country. Leon is especially known for being an Olympic gymnast, but he has long left that chapter in his life behind. The constant nagging from the media has gotten to him and Leon doesn't know what he wants to do with his life, all while struggling with depression.
I really did not like Calvin. At All. <b>MILD SPOILERS AHEAD</b>
🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
At the beginning of the book, Calvin states that he was dating this girl (Deb) and that he found out he was gay (or bisexual? I actually don't remember if it states in the book) by cheating on her with another guy. This is treated as not a big deal and everyone totally cool with it. He and Deb stayed friends and Calvin plans to move into an apartment with her in New York once they both graduate. That plan alters a bit when Calvin's family moves to Texas. There’s multiple times that Deb tries to call or text Calvin to check in on him but he just ignores her. And then has the <i>AUDACITY</i> to call her and be like "listen to my problems, my life is so hard and unfair". Meanwhile, this girl is supporting her parents while they live off of her income and take her money.
Just, no. I can’t.
The romance was just not there. It’s insta-love, of course, so maybe that’s why it was so unbelievable. Half of the time, Calvin is trying to <i>fix</i> Leon and push him into choosing a career because they’re seniors in high school and college is around the corner. Buddy, chill. Not everyone knows what they wanna do after high school. Not everyone <b>GOES</b> to college <i>right after</i> high school
Their relationship even felt like Calvin was just with Leon so that he could "make him happy" or some shit. I don’t know. Leon, at one point, even says something along the lines of, "Don’t kiss me because you want me to feel better. Kiss me because you want to kiss me". YES! You tell him!
Calvin also mentions that his mom and dad are fighting constantly, but there is no actual fighting. Like, there’s hardly even any arguments. He’s just so privileged and has life so good that he seem to realize that everyone around him is falling apart while dealing with their own problems.
━━━━━━━━━━☽✰☾━━━━━━━━━━