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A review by cristina_margarita
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
The beautiful (& horrible) thing about reading is that sometimes, you feel as though you’ve been irrevocably changed in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon & materially, nothing has happened.
This might be my favorite book of Taylor’s. I sobbed twice & cried less intensely countless times.
I think the subtitle really says it all, this is, to its very core, a love story. There were times I doubted it but clung to that subtitle with the hope that Taylor knew that love stories generally require happy endings. I think she pulled this one off more successfully than some of her other novels.
Joan & Vanessa, & even Barbara & the other astronauts, feel like lived in characters, they’re real people. & I love them for that. There are so many feelings & emotions in this book that I know. Taylor is a master at capturing the human experience. I also loved the things I couldn’t relate to, I loved that Joan ended up hating being in space. It felt right in a way I can’t explain.
The scene after Barbara’s wedding made me want to throw up. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Vanessa & Joan would be in their 60s or 70s when marriage equality was enacted nationwide. About how I was lucky enough to be born in a time where I got to see that when I was young enough that I wasn’t spending my whole life waiting.
I loved all of Joan’s meditations on humanity & life & god. & I loved Vanessa’s responses.
The gut punch of realization when the timeline clicked was almost too much for me. I had to go back & listen to the opening again.
I wish I had more. I know I almost always ask this of my five star reads but I do want more. I would have been satisfied with a single chapter epilogue, a glimpse what life as a family would have looked like for Joan, Francis, & Vanessa.
This might be my favorite book of Taylor’s. I sobbed twice & cried less intensely countless times.
I think the subtitle really says it all, this is, to its very core, a love story. There were times I doubted it but clung to that subtitle with the hope that Taylor knew that love stories generally require happy endings. I think she pulled this one off more successfully than some of her other novels.
Joan & Vanessa, & even Barbara & the other astronauts, feel like lived in characters, they’re real people. & I love them for that. There are so many feelings & emotions in this book that I know. Taylor is a master at capturing the human experience. I also loved the things I couldn’t relate to, I loved that Joan ended up hating being in space. It felt right in a way I can’t explain.
The scene after Barbara’s wedding made me want to throw up. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Vanessa & Joan would be in their 60s or 70s when marriage equality was enacted nationwide. About how I was lucky enough to be born in a time where I got to see that when I was young enough that I wasn’t spending my whole life waiting.
I loved all of Joan’s meditations on humanity & life & god. & I loved Vanessa’s responses.
The gut punch of realization when the timeline clicked was almost too much for me. I had to go back & listen to the opening again.
I wish I had more. I know I almost always ask this of my five star reads but I do want more. I would have been satisfied with a single chapter epilogue, a glimpse what life as a family would have looked like for Joan, Francis, & Vanessa.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Abandonment