Name: Relativity
ISBN: 9781501105074

Antonia Hayes

"In the vein of Jodi Picoult's House Rules and Nick Hornby's About a Boy, a debut novel about an exceptionally gifted boy who discovers the truth about his past, his overprotective single mother who tries desperately to shield him from it, and the father he has never met who is trying to come back into his life"--

Relativity

Becky

3.5 stars. Or 4 depending on my mood

This book was completely out of my comfort zone. It was so different to my usual books yet exactly the kind of book I enjoy reading. Nothing is as you expect in it and it raises so many questions.

This book taught me a few things about myself. That may sound strange but the story between Claire and Ethan and why Claire split with Mark, Ethan's father, is a complex one. It deals with a serious subject and so many secrets are kept until the end of the book that there is continually doubt the best what happened. As such, I realised I am an optimist who wants to believe the best in people. I wanted to believe the best in Mark and I didn't realise I was such an optimist.

I felt like I was getting a physics lesson throughout this book. So much of the science engineering over my head it was unbelievable. Physics was definitely my weakest science subject at school, I could never fully grasp it even with my good maths understanding. So reading the science in this book was difficult. The times Ethan goes off about one science concept or another had my brain switching off a little bit. Some may say that means I didn't enjoy the book but in fact the skillful writing meant that even if I had to skim read a science-y bit I was fully engrossed for the story itself.

The thing with this book is you get both Mark, Claire, and Ethan's POV and it is difficult to dislike any of them so when you're dealing with the difficult subject matter of this book it's hard. I want to believe the best and say Claire is at fault yet at the same time I hate Mark and all he has done as well. I can understand why he did and I understand why he acted as he did and yet I hate him. I also hate Claire and all the secrets she has kept for so long. She is also in the wrong. The only character I like regardless is Ethan because he is stuck in the middle.

In the end, I enjoyed this book even with my mixed feelings. It seems like a book which sticks with you for a while. It's not one I'll easily forgot.

Also, did I mention it was set in Australia? Love a book which isn't in the US or the UK.

Relativity

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