Book Review
Title: The Gravity of Us
Author: Phil Stamper
Genre: Contemporary/LGBT+/Romance
Rating: ****
Review: The Gravity of Us wasn’t something initially on my radar but I decided to give it a shot for my 2020 Goodreads Reading Challenge, inspired by the lovely Emily Foxx on YouTube. We are introduced to 17 year old, Cal, a successful online journalist who doesn’t have an easy life right now as his parents are constantly fighting. Most of their fighting revolves around his father applying to be an astronaut on NASA’s highly publicized mission to Mars, the Orpheus project despite only being a commercial pilot with none of the accolades that the other astronauts have. Cal and his mother really don’t want his father to get the job because his mother has lived in New York all her life and they would have to move to Houston and Cal doesn’t want him to get it because they would be part of a reality show called Shooting Stars and there is a clear clause in the contract that no public transmissions can be made outside of that show which would basically end Cal’s journalistic career and he would have to give up his BuzzFeed apprenticeship as well. This all come to a head when his father is accepted which is like a gut punch for both Cal and his mother and I can see things only getting worse between the family behind closed doors. Overall, the opening segment of The Gravity of Us was very gripping and I couldn’t wait to get deeper into Cal’s story.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Cal’s family are moving to Houston on Monday which means Cal might have to give up his internship as well but he isn’t the only one as we are introduced to Leon who has had to give up a potential place of the US Olympic team for gymnastics and I know from the synopsis that there might be a potential romance between this pair. As the family drive down to Texas from New York, Cal has plenty of time to observe his parents and to see how happy his father is and that happiness briefly infect the whole family so it almost seems like they are in their pre-NASA days. When they arrive, they are greeted by a NASA employee who shows them to their new home which Cal sees is a perfect blend of retro and modern and even he finds himself sort-of looking forward to what is to come but he isn’t going to allow the show to run his life and decides he is going to document the whole experience until he is forced to stop despite the contract his father signed. Cal goes live and announces to his half a million followers that his father is the final astronaut on the Orpheus mission and almost immediately all the press descend on their home. While the NASA guy tries to run damage control, Cal’s father knows it was Cal who is responsible for their current situation and he seems angry about that but keeps control of himself. Here he meets Kat and Leon, the children of another astronaut Grace Tucker. Kat is a massive fan of Cal’s and apparently Leon finds him to be cute and Kat invites him to a party her parents are throwing as he is the only other teen as the rest of the children are a lot younger so I think they are going to be spending a lot of time together.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Cal gets a cease and desist letter from the company controlling the press around the astronauts but after speaking with one of the other people picked whose wife is a lawyer, he realises he can keep pushing and decides he isn’t going to stop until he is forced completely. During this time, we also see Kat, Leon and Cal getting closer as they are all similar in age but Leon and Cal especially seem to have something more building between them which is interesting to follow. By the time the welcoming party is thrown for his parents, Cal is worried about making a good impression on Leon but during a conversation with his best friend, Deb he can already sense a distance growing between them because of how far apart they are. Leon, Cal, and Kat sneak away from the party for a while with some champagne although Kat conveniently disappears to allow her brother and Cal some alone time together where Cal tries to kiss Leon but Leon stops him. Leon asks Cal not to kiss him out of pity or to make him feel better but because he genuinely likes Leon which Cal understands as none of the other children are happy about moving to Houston and while Kat appear all in with the project, Leon is against it and Cal falls somewhere in-between. Cal also becomes really famous overnight because he refuses to stop reporting even if he can’t do his apprenticeship with BuzzFeed from Texas which is a massive blow to him but he is finding it hard to switch on and off in front of the cameras and Leon explains that while his family is able to do that, they aren’t perfect behind closed doors which is a relief for Cal that he doesn’t have to act constantly and he can just be himself around Leon. So far, The Gravity of Us isn’t anything special and apart from the brief media circus and the cease and desist order nothing much has actually happened and I am hoping it gets interesting soon because for me personally, contemporary fiction especially romance fiction can be extremely boring.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things do get interesting as Cal is offered the opportunity to work with the NASA social media team as he seems to be getting more attention that the whole reality show set up around the mission and he jumps at it even if it is a blow to his dad on the first day of work. Cal doesn’t just focus on the astronauts but on everyone working behind the scenes, the scientists, engineers, and many others which his viewers eat up and he encourages some of the scientists to start their own accounts and he can send his viewers to them for more information which will help protect the funding for the mission. In between this he shares his first kiss with Leon but it doesn’t go smoothly as Cal thinks that Leon regrets kissing him and he prepares to leave but Leon explains that he doesn’t trust easily and it takes him a while to process things which Cal understands but he also makes it clear that he was badly hurt by his ex-boyfriend and he can’t go through that again. With boys now seemingly dating although they are willing to put a label on what they are which I approve of we see one of the other potential pilots basically trashing Cal’s father because he is only a commercial pilot and he firmly believes that control of the mission will be given to him or Grace Tucker who have more experience but I have a feeling that we might get a twist regarding that a little later on in the novel.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, I was finding the book fairly interesting especially when it is focusing on the space mission and all the drama that comes with that. I am not heavily invested in the relationship between Cal and Leon yet especially since Cal is still firm about moving back to New York and moving in with Deb just like they planned. Things get really interesting at this point as the three pilots, Mark, Grace, and Cal’s dad are heading to Florida for some more training when the plane crashes, Mark dies in the crash but Cal’s dad and Grace survive with minor injuries meaning that Cal’s dad might be replacing Mark as Grace’s alternate for the role of mission leader but this is overshadowed by what it means for the future and security of Mark’s family. In the aftermath of Mark’s death, the reality show try to take advantage of his grieving wife until Cal live streams the entire thing exposing them and basically shutting the whole show down with NASA threatening to terminate the contract completely. Cal thinks here he will get more publicity but he is also worried about what the show could do if they turn against NASA but they don’t have time to worry about this as his relationship with Leon is escalating and he is worried by how quickly things are changing in his life. This is made worse when Grace is announced as the leader of the mission with his dad as her alternate which means the relative peace they have enjoyed is about to come to an end and I can’t wait to see where this story goes especially since after the year ends, Cal has to make the choice between staying in Texas or returning to New York but either way he might lose someone.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Cal and Leon’s relationship is great especially them being completely open about Leon’s depression and Cal’s panic attacks and how they navigate that. However, when StarWatch begin trying to sabotage the mission especially after the explosion of the one of the antennas everything seems to be falling apart before its even begun and there are also rumours of the funding being pulled from NASA meaning a lot of people would be laid off. StarWatch also put a piece out on Cal making him seem like the villain of the story in response to what he did to them after Mark’s death and for a moment it hits Cal hard especially since it affects his relationship with Leon but he eventually has an idea to fight back. With her father’s help he goes to NASA and speaks to a bunch of people behind the scenes and why the mission is important to them from both personal and professional stand point including his father and he intends to put them out that night in a last ditch effort to save the Orpheus mission but I am not sure what one teenager can do against a well-funded organisation like StarWatch but I am really eager to see how this novel concludes not just with the mission but what is going to happen between Cal and Leon since they are having some space right now in light of recent events. I really like the honest and open way mental health is being portrayed in this novel especially with Leon’s depression as I can really identify with him as a character especially in the way he describes the feeling of being depressed and being shocked when he thinks his parents think his gymnastics caused the depression when it had actually been there for a long time before that they just didn’t see it.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Cal decides to use all the knowledge and fame he has to save the Orpheus mission but he isn’t sure it is going to be enough. However, he has NASA and a huge portion of the general public on his side as they all wait for the decision on whether the mission is going to be cancelled or not. Hours later Cal learns that he has saved NASA Orpheus programme near enough on his own but so much more come after that as he learns his father will be the lead pilot of the Orpheus 6 mission after the return of the Orpheus 5 which Grace is leading. We see Cal and Tucker work out their relationship which was brilliant but what really made this novel great for me was the epilogue as we learn Cal has fulfilled his dream of becoming a real journalist with Teen Vogue, both he and Leon are going to the University of Texas so they will be together, his mother and father are mending their relationship and we get to see the successful launch of the Orpheus 5 which won’t return to Earth for nearly two years but Cal and Leon will have each other during this time as Leon will be without his mother for two years and following that Cal will be without his father for the same amount of time. I really enjoyed how science was a key part of this novel but it also really focused hard on the characters and the very human flaws they have. Overall, The Gravity of Us was slow to start but really picked up in the second half and I will be checking out more from this author in the future.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Comments