Alyssa’s Reviews – Square Root of Summer + Q&A! (ARC)
Hi friend!
A few weeks ago, I decided to apply to join the Square Root of Summer book tour, run by Raincoast Canada! Today I and Liz @ Midnight Bloom Reads have our stop/posts on the blog tour!
The Square Root of Summer was a book I had heard of before Raincoast. I believe it was recommended to me on GoodReads, and I decided to add it to my TBR list. When I heard I could be a part of the blog tour, I jumped on the chance and decided to join in!
The box the book came in was soooo cute, and I read the book in a quick matter!
Let’s get started with the review!
This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It’s a little bit like a black hole. It’s a little bit like infinity.
Gottie H. Oppenheimer is losing time. Literally. When the fabric of the universe around her seaside town begins to fray, she’s hurtled through wormholes to her past:
To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn’t even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her best friend Thomas moved away and left her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory.
Although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie’s past, present, and future are about to collide—and someone’s heart is about to be broken.
With time travel, quantum physics, and sweeping romance, The Square Root of Summer is an exponentially enthralling story about love, loss, and trying to figure it all out, from stunning debut YA voice, Harriet Reuter Hapgood.
Review:
This book was such an incredibly powerful novel. It really shares how love and friendship can change you and make you crazy!
What I loved most about this book was the characters. I really liked Gottie, especially the nicknames she was given from her family and friends! Gottie was funny at times, especially in the beginning when she was comparing her life to math, more specifically wormholes. This made her different then many other YA characters, especially because her qwerks were lovable, not annoying. Another character I really enjoyed reading about was Thomas. Thomas and Gottie had a special connection throughout the entire book, and I really enjoyed reading about them when they were together. Also, can we mention that Thomas moved to Toronto, Canada for 5 years before coming back to England to spend the summer in Gottie and Ned’s (Gottie’s brother) house. The stereotypes were so funny and they gave me a good laugh!
One of things I enjoyed reading were all of the flashbacks from Gottie. The ones I liked most were the ones when she was recounting her times/memories with her grandfather Grey. You could tell that she had another special connection with Grey, and missed him dearly.
Other then the relationships between characters, this book had a lot of time traveling involved. As someone who knows absolutely nothing about time travelling, Harriet made it really easy to understand, which I was very grateful for! The time travelling added a really neat touch to the novel, that most authors would never think of doing. I think that that aspect really enhanced the book, rather then made it difficult to understand.
The book is set in an English small town/countryside. The town was so cute, other then that I really don’t know how to describe it! There was a “home-ie” feeling to it that not many books have, as many authors don’t pay close attention to a setting, unless the book is dystopian! Gottie’s dad “Papa” took over the bookstore that her grandfather Grey owned.
And like any feel-good contemporary there is a lot of good romance, which ended up being really sweet and cute!
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and gave it 4/5 stars!
I had the opportunity to ask Harriet a little question, and here is her response!
What inspired you to write The Square Root of Summer?
I started writing the book so long ago it’s hard to remember the original spark of
inspiration. My grandmother had died and I had a really hard time dealing with it, and
I wanted to write about that – a summer story about grief, because I love books set in
the summer holidays when there’s no school structure or timetable or familiarity to
each day, and time slips into a different groove. I went away to a cottage in Norfolk
to think about it and ended up using that as the setting – something about the sea and
the countryside and solitude combined to create this lonely tone. And the last conversation my grandmother and I had had was about quantum physics, so the book ended up being a continuation of that conversation.
I’d like to send a heartfelt thank you to Raincoast Canada and Harriet Reuter Hapgood for giving me the oppurtunity to participate in this blog tour, as well as giving me an ARC of the book!
Check out all of the other amazing blog tour posts for Square Root of Summer here:
Alexis @ Inside the Pages Book Reviews
Ryley @ Ryley Reads
Jenn @ Lost in a Great Book
Christine @ Padfoot’s Library
Liz @ Midnight Bloom Reads
Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit
Melissa @ YA Bookshelf
Ambur @ Burning Impossibly Bright
Use the hashtag #SquareRootofSummer on Social Media to discuss this amazing book!
Thank you all so much for reading! Let me know if you enjoyed this book/plan on reading it in the comments below!
Good Night Book Owls!
