“As beautiful as it is breathtaking.” –BuzzFeed “Will give you all the feels.” –Charlotte Magazine For fans of Love, Simon and Eleanor & Park, a “tender, beautifully told” (Julie Buxbaum, New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things) novel about a transgender boy who falls in love for the first time–and how first love changes us all–from New York Times bestselling author … how first love changes us all–from New York Times bestselling author Amber Smith.
Chris and Maia aren’t off to a great start.
A near-fatal car accident first brings them together, and their next encounters don’t fare much better. Chris’s good intentions backfire. Maia’s temper gets the best of her. But they’re neighbors, at least for the summer, and despite their best efforts, they just can’t seem to stay away from each other.
The path forward isn’t easy. Chris has come out as transgender, but he’s still processing a frightening assault he survived the year before. Maia is grieving the loss of her older sister and trying to find her place in the world without her. Falling in love was the last thing on either of their minds.
But would it be so bad if it happened anyway?
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A powerful and illuminating story about grief, identity and finding your true self. You will never forget Chris and Maia.
Something like Gravity is officially my favorite book of 2019. I picked this up to read on vacation because the description seemed like a cute summer romance…and OMG was I in for a surprise. (A pleasant surprise). This book was DEEP. The characters were so complex and had me thinking about them even when I wasn’t reading.
Maia: that girl was a mess but i was also able to understand her in her grief, and seeing her through Chris’ eyes redeemed alot of the more questionable things the reader was privy to. Loss messes with people, and Maia showed that in a human and complicated way.
Now Chris: Being married to a transman I have never come across a fictional transmasc character who felt quite so real and accurate, from the representation of transition related material, to hormones, to body image, and even intimacy. I made my husband read this book immediately after I finished and he said that he wished he had a character like Chris when he was a teenanger. I’ll let that statement speak for itself
Final thoughts:
*Chris stole the show for me. I just wanted to keep living in his head, although I do think Maia was a necessary counterpart as well.
*I laughed, smiled, cried, sniffled and sobbed while reading.
*I’m just so happy to see a book like this being written for young adults and published my a major publisher.
*This was also just a damn good love story too!
*the end: we need a sequel!
my ONE complaint: the cover and jacket blurb does not do this book justice, and I’d love to see a redesign later on. (this is now by far the longest review I’ve ever written but thats how much this story meant to me).
Something Like Gravity is a remarkable story that follows two characters trying to navigate their new lives in different ways. For Chris, he is a trans man who is trying to navigate his newfound acceptance of his identity the affect it has had on those around him. However, due to the hatred and bigotry that he has faced leading to an assault that landed him in the hospital, Chris has moved in with his aunt miles away from home. This is a genuine issue and the way the author does not shy away from the brutality of the scene while also not just giving it to the reader initially, allowing some build-up creates an impact on the reader. The scene inserts itself suddenly, and yet the flow to it, the buildup and the context connect with the reader. This is something that unfortunately happens every day, where brutality and assault like the one Chris endures makes the news, and the way Smith brings it to young readers allows the reader to understand and empathize with Chris while also bringing light to the issue. The way Chris operates the way he grows his sense of trust and identity; it is all done so well in the novel to the point that the reader can grasp who Chris is as a person.
For Maia, her world has turned upside down because her sister died suddenly of an undiagnosed health issue. Her life was always living in her sister’s shadow, and she was content with that until she was not. That is the part of the story that breaks her because she does not ‘know how to navigate this new world without her sister overshadowing. She does not know how to be Maia without her; she never had an identity of her own. Maia spends the earlier parts of the novel trying to connect with who her sister was. For Maia, her journey is all about navigating through her anger and her grief.
The story brings these two characters together so that together they find the acceptance, love, and inner peace they need. Through each other, they can look inside themselves and find the peace that they need. It is an empowering message to readers no matter what situation they are going through. That is why Something Like Gravity is such a compelling read, it resonates with the reader and makes for in a genuinely compelling read.
A beautiful, bittersweet young love story that examines the challenges of grief and otherness that face teens. This novel opens up human experiences and teaches compassion and understanding throughout its pages.
I was given the opportunity to read the final draft of this novel and I highly recommend it to all readers. The overall book follows thematic lines of kindness, understanding and self-exploration that are so vital to the young growing older and the older seeking to understand the younger. In her true fashion, Ms. Smith does not shy from challenging and unsettling content, but in this work it is tempered toward a message of hope and happiness–resulting in a beautiful takeaway that avoids the sap and histrionic content so common in love stories.
A major driving element in ‘Something Like Gravity’ is the impressive strength of character. Maia and Chris are both equally unique and relatable. Their humanity is inherent in every page and I found pieces of myself in both of them as I turned the pages. They are the kind of characters you root for, the kind you care about, the kind you find yourself thinking of randomly days later after reading the book. Chris is a charming and honest example of a teen accepting his trans identity–and Ms. Smith makes a strong choice to skip the typical ‘coming out’ story and instead works with a kid who knows who he wants to become and is working toward becoming his true self. Maia is not a typical griever full of tears and aimed for pity, but a strong woman growing into an unnknown identity that is compelling and at times scandalous.
The backdrop of this book, Carson, is a backwater Southern Town that creates a wonderful blend of isolationism and pastoralism for the characters to grow within. At times the setting almost takes on the role of a character, driving themes and scenes with the unique experience of a rural run-down single stoplight town. Instead of leaning into stereotypical scenery, Ms. Smith develops a unique and compelling world that has new surprises around each turn in the road.
As for plot, I won’t spoil any for readers, but Amber Smith shows her usual skill at keeping the reader so engrossed in the story that the pages practically turn themselves. Within this she blends thematic and metaphorical content via astronomy and photography that clench the artistic edge of this novel.
Overall, I’d say it is her definitive work. She has really blown me away with this book.
Amber Smith’s Something Like Gravity is a tender, beautifully told story of first love and first loss and how finding the right person at the right time can be very thing that saves us. You will love Chris and Maia from the very first page of this gorgeous novel and will miss them long after you’ve finished.
With Something Like Gravity, Amber Smith again shows the heart and empathy that makes her one of young adult’s foremost storytellers. This is a vital and beautiful book.
I told myself, try something new, Queen B. Something Like Gravity is definitely not my normal read. Our two main characters are a transgender boy and a teenage girl struggling with loss and grief.
But it just didn’t really work for me. So much was unbelievable and unrealistic.
Chris is our 17 y/o transgender boy, and despite being pre-testosterone treatment, no one ever questions his gender? While I applaud the author for tackling a difficult (and not often discussed) subject matter, it just felt poorly researched.
And Maia? She was a piece of work. She’s actively trying to recreate her dead sister’s photography in order to…what? Understand the sister she didn’t seem to like or love?
Full of forced angst, characters overreacting, and an abrupt ending, Something Like Gravity dragged on and did not hold the reader’s interest. Potential to be great, but not well executed.