[Review] The Gravity of Us - Phil Stamper

Summary: As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, seventeen-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.
Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
Expertly capturing the thrill of first love and the self-doubt all teens feel, debut author Phil Stamper is a new talent to watch. (Pub Date: Feb 4, 2020)



I feel disappointed, but it wasn't bad. Just too average and too long. So it's a 2.5 rounded up to 3.

This will go on about Cal, a youtuber though by other name, who focus on commenting news online. When his dad is picked to be an astronaut, he has to move from his beloved New York to Texas, but he also gets an inside to NASA's program for his show. Plus, he meets the cute son of another astronaut.

The cover is amazing, really! And the title is so cute, I couldn't resist. But I do think the book has value. For once it's a guy writing about a guy, I really dig the LGBT books written by guys. They're strangely rare in mainstream titles.

Then the story I got wasn't really what I wanted. Wait, no, the story is pretty much what you imagine from the official summary. It's just that you're ready for at least 50% of romance but you get around 80% shenanigans about Cal's online videos instead.

And the videos shenanigans weren't even interesting. The book is about a mission to go to Mars and stuff, but the content is just so... I've seen this before. Let me explain, the NASA program is broadcast as a reality show so people will be interested in financing all that, as the seasons of the show go on, they need more drama on air, so it became a lot like... any reality show. Because of that, Cal's online reports, which focus on the more technical aspects, get a lot of views etc.

Not only it's kinda crazy they give a teenager that much importance, but this will be the main story of the book. Not the romance, like I wanted. And when we did get romance, it wasn't good enough to compensate all the pages I had to go through. 

"Blah-blah-blah, so sorry you didn't get your romance, but there's a story this writer actually had to research to make, give it value!" Okay, you could say that, but didn't I say the other plot wasn't good? It was predictable and at the very least makes you frown a lot. "And aren't all YA's about teens saving the world from the dumb greedy adults?" And there's my reason for going for romances and contemporary YA's. That bothers me, so I avoid the rest.

The subplot (more like main plot) had a silly development and took too much space, but it was different somehow. Plus, I don't like that stuff but I'm not all readers; lots of people actually prefer their romance just as seasoning so go ahead if you're one.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Edelweiss. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.