A review by serendipitysbooks
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The newest offering from Taylor Jenkins Reid is a sapphic love story set against the background of the 1980s space shuttle programme. Reid really knows how to craft a story, and here she uses the dual timeline to particularly good effect. I love a good "woman succeeding against the odds" story, and this book shares many of the same ingredients as her recent books that have made her such a publishing success story. And yet I was left feeling a little underwhelmed without being able to pinpoint precisely why. Possibly, I'm tiring of Reid's style, and it's starting to feel a bit formualic. I know I've been leaning more and more literary in my reading tastes. Maybe the space jargon felt too techy? Could be that knowing the story was fictional made it feel too low stakes - especially since I was confident there were directions Reid wouldn't take the plot . The ending might have felt too emotionally manipulative for my tastes. Regardless, while this is not objectively a bad book and I did enjoy many parts of it, it ultimately didn't land for me in quite the way I hoped.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings