Relativity in Aussie Readers

May 04, 2015 Michael Livingston rated it liked it

Smartly plotted, with three well-developed characters, this suffered a bit from an over-emphasis on the physics metaphors and some slightly overwrought writing. Also: I can't be the only person getting a bit tired of the Aspergers-y kid characters can I? ...more

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Jul 21, 2015 Lauredhel rated it really liked it

Shelves: australian-women-writers-challenge, disability, australian, aww2015

3.5,maybe? Some people will fall in major love and call this their best book of the year. And there were a lot of good things about this book: well-drawn, sympathetic characters, great plotting and pacing, an intriguing premise.

Ethan, a preteen growing up in Sydney with a single mother, can see physics. Sound waves, torque, momentum, and electromagnetism sparkle in the air around him. He is adored by his mother but he is bullied by his peers, until one day he snaps, resulting a hospital admissi 3.5,maybe? Some people will fall in major love and call this their best book of the year. And there were a lot of good things about this book: well-drawn, sympathetic characters, great plotting and pacing, an intriguing premise.

Ethan, a preteen growing up in Sydney with a single mother, can see physics. Sound waves, torque, momentum, and electromagnetism sparkle in the air around him. He is adored by his mother but he is bullied by his peers, until one day he snaps, resulting a hospital admission. A neurologist takes an interest in his brain, and he starts to learn the secrets of his past, and why his father was absent from it.

This book is about how a moment can ruin your life, about how family violence is sometimes vertically transmitted, it's about forgiveness, motherly love, growing up with a disability and a history which your parent hasn't disclosed to you, discovering family secrets, and more.

I did have issues with the book, though, that - well, they didn't spoil the reading process, but they made it not as great as it could have been. Firstly, I usually treasure science-y stuff in books. However I felt that a lighter hand on the physics metaphors would have greatly enhanced this book. They were ever-present to the point that, for me, they started to intrude on the story.

My second issue was that the climactic scene (not the flashback, the one before that) was simply not credible. A child of that age with that sort of knowledge of physics simply would not take the actions that he took - suddenly he felt like an eight year old with only a very little scientific knowledge. Since this was a really pivotal part of the climax, it brought me out of the book and into "no, this is not a thing I can believe" territory.

I will also disclose straight up that child abuse forgiveness narratives are simply a squick for me.

Content notes: [pretty big spoilers, child abuse & medical related] (view spoiler)
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