A review by peonyreading
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Atmosphere was beautifully written, with Joan and Vanessa both as lovely leads for this story, but overall I think it fell a bit short of my expectations.

First off, I was not a fan of the cold open, or at least in how much we learned during it. Within the first few chapters, we learn that an accident has happened and Vanessa thinks she is the only one left alive. This later turns out to be not entirely true, but we still are told relatively early what has happened to the other crew members. I think it would have been better if we didn't know exactly what had transpired so early on, that it should have left off at the pressure being stabilized part (or even before that in the midst of the chaos) until we got more of an introduction to these characters, because for me personally there were certain characters that I didn't pay as much attention to (or in my mind I would think
"oh yeah that's the dead guy"
which is not the best first impression to have about a character!). In general throughout the novel I feel like we didn't get too much characterization of the side characters (aside from Barbara and Frances), which was annoying considering they were specifically mentioned in the description for the novel, but I was also left feeling like that was by design. For example, we get to see into the lives of Hank and Donna every so often, and are introduced to the idea of
Donna being an astronaut while being a mother (a few times in fact)
, but not much comes out of that subplot (for obvious reasons, but still).

There were also certain characterizations that came off as corny to me during this novel, namely the gay awakening
at a strip club
felt corny, and Joan's talks about God and loving a child (specifically Frances, but still), which felt a bit too preachy at times (while also giving WAY too much leniency to Barbara for her treatment of Frances). Speaking of Barbara, I have a couple of choice thoughts about her:
Barbara was the true villain of the story, absolutely manipulative and narcissistic to the end, and I personally want to punch her and tell her that she should have had an abortion if she was going to treat Frances like this, because Joan isn't man enough to do that.


There were also some parts in the ending that, while sweet, were things that I don't think would have been historically accurate for the atmosphere (get it?) in mission control during such a crucial period. The back and forth we got to see between Joan and Vanessa was beautiful, but realistically would this have happened in mission control?
With her supervisors basically giving her permission to profess her love to Vanessa in front of everyone, on something that would be recorded for future use?
Absolutely not.

Ending spoilers:
Vanessa making it back alive on a space shuttle that basically had a leak in it sealed by a clipboard also seemed like a stretch to me, but I don't know enough about physics to really make any comments on that part. Or maybe it was possible, but not described with enough of a visual for me to really understand what happened. I also REALLY wished there was an epilogue!


But as I said before this was beautifully written, TJR knows how to write romance between strong female characters, and this is no exception. Vanessa is an incredibly complex character and I loved learning about her through Joan's eyes. Joan, while a bit more controversial and definitely more of a pushover with her sister for most of the novel, was a lovely lead during the NASA side of things and a strong, smart, and very capable woman who shot down sexism and showed it was okay to have a soft side while chasing your dreams in a male-dominated field. The romance between Joan and Vanessa felt very realistic, while the NASA setting felt mostly realistic, and the novel oozed top notch 80's vibes.

Overall did I like Atmosphere? Yes absolutely. Did I love it? No. And did it become my new favorite TJR novel? Unfortunately, that answer is also no, but I still enjoyed the novel for what it was and would still recommend it!
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