Name: How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky
ISBN: 9781250047021

Lydia Netzer

A deeply religious scientist who would prove the existence of a Gateway to God and a pragmatist mathematician overseeing the construction of a massive superconductor fall in love only to discover that their mothers orchestrated their romance. By the award-winning author of Shine Shine Shine. 100,000 first printing.

A Novel

How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky

Jess

Read this review on my blog! --&gt; <a href="http://gonewiththewords.com/2014/07/review-how-to-tell-toledo-from-the-night-sky-by-lydia-netzer-giveaway.html" rel="nofollow noopener">How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky by Lydia Netzer</a> How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is one of the most quirky, wonderful books I’ve read. The magical realism story mixes beautiful writing with fun loving characters who you’ll definitely root for. Also, science! Never thought I’d find science that interesting, but Lydia Netzer makes it so. Imagine being planned, created, then bred for another person. George and Irene were created for one another, but their story goes a little awry along the way and you’ll just be hoping and wishing they work out. The scene where George sees Irene for “the first time” made me smile and giggle SO HARD! Those two had that effect on me a lot in this book. Their mothers were a different story though. They caused my heart several twinges of pain throughout the story. It was heartbreaking, but I loved being able to see how this plan was hatched. The glimpses into their past gave the story a solid foundation and even made me wonder if a lot of the things they did could be real. Also!! This book made me feel like I was watching a Woody Allen movie in my head. It reminded me of Mighty Aphrodite, with all the Greek gods appearing everywhere. :) I can already tell this book will make an appearance on my End of Year post, and I can guarantee I’ll be recommending it A LOT! I think people who like Sarah Addison Allen’s books should definitely try Lydia Netzer. I can’t wait for you guys to experience this little gem!

Hannah Yang

Wow, it's been so long since I've given a book 1 star I almost want to give this book 2 just because I feel bad. But alas, I did not enjoy How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky at all. I almost didn't finish it, but I was holding onto hope that it would somehow redeem itself. Unfortunately, its only redeeming moment was the ending, because it was unarguably cute. Then again, 2 cute pages out of 336 is still not great.

Enough rambling: How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky is basically about two brilliant astronomers who have been raised to be each other's soulmates by their mothers, who were once best friends. Irene is all brains and insensitivity and George is dreamy and sees deities (view spoiler)[(and at the end his dad and uncle are also gods? What??) (hide spoiler)] and the two were made to be perfect for each other. I was so excited to read this book after reading the blurb, but it turns out this book:

1. Drops the science part, like, immediately after Irene and George meet. Science-y terms are mentioned after that seemingly for the sole purpose of maintaing that the! two! main! characters! are! adorably! geeky! and! wow! they! are! smart! and! in! looove! and! this! is! like! a! science! thing! because! the! characters! are! adorable! geeks! 

2. Has a lot of sexual stuff? I wasn't expecting that, and usually it's the kind of thing I can roll with and just ignore, but a) it was everywhere, b) it was super uncomfortable to read, c) it was everywhere.

3. Unnecessary side-plots. Bernice and Sally's story was okay because it was essential for the plot, but I was thoroughly uninterested in Belion's whole 'Silvergirl' side-story. What was the point? Why did I need to read about Belion's sexual frustrations? Why?

4. The character development is unconvincing. There is a huge shift in the way Irene behaves before and after George's operation, but how and why that shift occurred isn't really developed more than "she loves him! For real, not just because it was designed!" The thing is, Irene was really messed up. Her childhood was messed up, she was angry and sad and lonely. This is all suddenly resolved because Sally apologizes and asks her to come back to Toledo. In fact, all of the characters are pretty messed up. There are a lot of unhealthy relationships in this novel, and at the end of the novel it appears that all of that 'messed up' is just gone. Poof.

5. The writing was confusing. Once I finished the novel, the story felt fairly straightforward. There are lots of details, but if you take away all the fluff, the story is easy to follow. The whole book could probably be a lot shorter and still get the story across. While I was reading, though, I was often confused about what was going on and how it related to the plot. There are some grand rhetorical questions thrown about, some of which are interesting (ex: Something doesn't have to be true to be real) and others of which were so confusingly written that I just skimmed past them.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I'm just disappointed because I expected science mixed with love and deep thoughts under the stars, and I feel like what I read was the story of four romantically and sexually frustrated people (two of which were basically irrelevant - looking at you, Belion and Kate). All I can say is that the concept was fantastic, the execution not so much.

How to Tell Toledo from the Night Sky A Novel

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