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michelle_pink_polka_dot's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 Stars. I'll pretty much never get sick of reading about 17 year-old geniuses, especially ones who try to save the world. The ending was a little MEH, but overall a fabulous debut!
Yuri is a 17-year-old physicist from Russia with the fate of the world in his hands. When an asteroid is found hurtling towards Earth weeks before impact, NASA is scrambling to come up with a save. Yuri has the knowledge, but not the clout or social skills to make people listen to him.
By chance, Yuri meets a "normal" teenage girl, and she teaches him that there is life outside the classroom and that if he saves the world, he'll at least have friends to celebrate with.
My Thoughts:
If you told me that I would read (and like) a book that was heavy on MATH, I would have never believed you. This thing is, it happened!! There's a lot of freaking math in this book. A lot of science and smart people stuff, and I genuinely loved those parts the best!! It's crazy how this story took hold of my attention.
Child-prodigy Yuri Strelnikov was painfully awkward and so, so, so freaking smart, but the awkward part (and some hard-core ageism by his colleagues) made people dismiss him... and that dismissal was really dangerous for Earth because UMMM??? Genius over here!!! I loved the tension of knowing the asteroid was speeding towards the place where the planning was taking place. If they didn't listen to Yuri, if they did and Yuri was wrong, If they failed in any way, they were at the point of impact!
Now, the Collums- Dovie was a fantastic addition to this book. She teaches Yuri things about the world that he never would have learned from his scientist circle. Also, Lennon, the brother, was a favorite for me. But as much as I loved the secondary story line of Yuri finding out how "normal" teens lived, I couldn't help but think "HELLO, THERE'S A FREAKING ASTEROID COMING AND YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!!!". It's insanely rude of me to want someone like Yuri to not live a life and just go and save the world, but I can't stop asteroids, so I need him to go and do that.... like NOW!! This is fiction though, so once I reminded myself of that, I was okay.
The ending kind of dragged, and really that's the only part that I didn't love. I didn't feel like I needed the events that happened after the asteroid problem played out. All that stuff probably could've been solved in 5-10 pages instead of multiple chapters.
Yuri is definitely a character I won't be forgetting anytime soon. I kept reading the book without the English articles (like the, a, an, etc.) even when they were clearly present or were in dialogue spoken by English speaking characters. I wonder how long I'll be doing that for?? While writing this, I've already been imagining these sentences without them :)
OVERALL: Such a smart, thrilling, silly, cool debut. I can't imagine telling anyone that I don't think they would like it. What's not to like about a fish-out-of-water + NASA + world-killing asteroid + social/communication/culture barriers?
My Blog:
Yuri is a 17-year-old physicist from Russia with the fate of the world in his hands. When an asteroid is found hurtling towards Earth weeks before impact, NASA is scrambling to come up with a save. Yuri has the knowledge, but not the clout or social skills to make people listen to him.
By chance, Yuri meets a "normal" teenage girl, and she teaches him that there is life outside the classroom and that if he saves the world, he'll at least have friends to celebrate with.
My Thoughts:
If you told me that I would read (and like) a book that was heavy on MATH, I would have never believed you. This thing is, it happened!! There's a lot of freaking math in this book. A lot of science and smart people stuff, and I genuinely loved those parts the best!! It's crazy how this story took hold of my attention.
Child-prodigy Yuri Strelnikov was painfully awkward and so, so, so freaking smart, but the awkward part (and some hard-core ageism by his colleagues) made people dismiss him... and that dismissal was really dangerous for Earth because UMMM??? Genius over here!!! I loved the tension of knowing the asteroid was speeding towards the place where the planning was taking place. If they didn't listen to Yuri, if they did and Yuri was wrong, If they failed in any way, they were at the point of impact!
Now, the Collums- Dovie was a fantastic addition to this book. She teaches Yuri things about the world that he never would have learned from his scientist circle. Also, Lennon, the brother, was a favorite for me. But as much as I loved the secondary story line of Yuri finding out how "normal" teens lived, I couldn't help but think "HELLO, THERE'S A FREAKING ASTEROID COMING AND YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!!!". It's insanely rude of me to want someone like Yuri to not live a life and just go and save the world, but I can't stop asteroids, so I need him to go and do that.... like NOW!! This is fiction though, so once I reminded myself of that, I was okay.
The ending kind of dragged, and really that's the only part that I didn't love. I didn't feel like I needed the events that happened after the asteroid problem played out. All that stuff probably could've been solved in 5-10 pages instead of multiple chapters.
Yuri is definitely a character I won't be forgetting anytime soon. I kept reading the book without the English articles (like the, a, an, etc.) even when they were clearly present or were in dialogue spoken by English speaking characters. I wonder how long I'll be doing that for?? While writing this, I've already been imagining these sentences without them :)
OVERALL: Such a smart, thrilling, silly, cool debut. I can't imagine telling anyone that I don't think they would like it. What's not to like about a fish-out-of-water + NASA + world-killing asteroid + social/communication/culture barriers?
My Blog:
upperbison705's review against another edition
4.0
What happened to Laskov???????????????????????????
angelina_cecilia's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
yearofbluewater's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars
Welcome, folks, to my worst-written Goodreads review since 2015. Drumroll, please...
So there was science. And not just any science: space science. And that part was really great. But there was also not-science. And the not-sciency bits weren't nearly as good.
Ahem.
I very much enjoyed the tone of this book, which was generally serious, but self-deprecating and humorous enough to seem real and relatable. Yuri is an awesome main character; arrogant but understandably so, and constantly confused in a way that didn't seem grating.
The plot was cool, or at least certain parts of it. Because the romance was not fun. Dovie, the love interest, is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl in every sense of the word. I honestly can't imagine her having a life outside of Yuri, because every one of her traits is exaggerated to appeal to him specifically.
I didn't hate Dovie, but I also couldn't bring myself to like her. She's just too much of a cliche. An artist with hippie parents who feels trapped and oppressed by a world that expects her to grow up and leave parts of herself behind? Wow, real original.
There was far too much time spent on their dull, uncreative romance. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but I was pretty uninvested. It was like soup, and no, I'm not willing to elaborate on that simile. It was just very soupy.
But the science bits! They were actually great! See, there's a giant meteor heading towards Earth, and Yuri has this idea to use antimatter to chip away at it, but no one wants to do what he says because it's very experimental--I can't say any more without spoiling, but there's a couple dozen pages near the end that are just pure NASA and science and sleep deprivation and panic and moral examination and self-doubt, and that was definitely the best part of the book. Like, if you just took that part and made it into a separate novel, I would give it maybe 5 stars, because I was 100% on the edge of my seat.
Unfortunately, the main part of this book was composed of Yuri and Dovie doing things, which was, as mentioned above, soupy. So I can't in good conscience give Learning to Swear in America more than 3 stars, because on the whole this was a rather average, if enjoyable, book.
Still, I plan to read Katie Kennedy's other book [b:What Goes Up|31450696|What Goes Up|Katie Kennedy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483391836s/31450696.jpg|51832982], and I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes space and is looking for a quick, fun read (with a healthy side of existentialism).
Welcome, folks, to my worst-written Goodreads review since 2015. Drumroll, please...
So there was science. And not just any science: space science. And that part was really great. But there was also not-science. And the not-sciency bits weren't nearly as good.
Ahem.
I very much enjoyed the tone of this book, which was generally serious, but self-deprecating and humorous enough to seem real and relatable. Yuri is an awesome main character; arrogant but understandably so, and constantly confused in a way that didn't seem grating.
The plot was cool, or at least certain parts of it. Because the romance was not fun. Dovie, the love interest, is a Manic Pixie Dream Girl in every sense of the word. I honestly can't imagine her having a life outside of Yuri, because every one of her traits is exaggerated to appeal to him specifically.
I didn't hate Dovie, but I also couldn't bring myself to like her. She's just too much of a cliche. An artist with hippie parents who feels trapped and oppressed by a world that expects her to grow up and leave parts of herself behind? Wow, real original.
There was far too much time spent on their dull, uncreative romance. There's nothing wrong with it, per se, but I was pretty uninvested. It was like soup, and no, I'm not willing to elaborate on that simile. It was just very soupy.
But the science bits! They were actually great! See, there's a giant meteor heading towards Earth, and Yuri has this idea to use antimatter to chip away at it, but no one wants to do what he says because it's very experimental--I can't say any more without spoiling, but there's a couple dozen pages near the end that are just pure NASA and science and sleep deprivation and panic and moral examination and self-doubt, and that was definitely the best part of the book. Like, if you just took that part and made it into a separate novel, I would give it maybe 5 stars, because I was 100% on the edge of my seat
Unfortunately, the main part of this book was composed of Yuri and Dovie doing things, which was, as mentioned above, soupy. So I can't in good conscience give Learning to Swear in America more than 3 stars, because on the whole this was a rather average, if enjoyable, book.
Still, I plan to read Katie Kennedy's other book [b:What Goes Up|31450696|What Goes Up|Katie Kennedy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1483391836s/31450696.jpg|51832982], and I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes space and is looking for a quick, fun read (with a healthy side of existentialism).
renacuajo's review against another edition
3.0
This book had an interesting premise, but it didn't hold my attention from the very beginning, as most books that I end up really enjoying tend to do. Around the 60% mark is when it really picked up for me and I couldn't put it down.
I found the scenes with Yuri and Dovie a bit much sometimes, I'm not really sure how to put it… I just preferred to read about Yuri working and discussing the asteroid than doing reckless acts.
On the positive side, there is a very important side character who uses a wheelchair, but he is not just defined as the "guy in the wheelchair" and there's so much more to him. Kudos to the author on that aspect!
I found the scenes with Yuri and Dovie a bit much sometimes, I'm not really sure how to put it… I just preferred to read about Yuri working and discussing the asteroid than doing reckless acts.
On the positive side, there is a very important side character who uses a wheelchair, but he is not just defined as the "guy in the wheelchair" and there's so much more to him. Kudos to the author on that aspect!
snchard's review against another edition
3.0
So cute! I'm pretty sure it's not an accurate portrayal of how science or governments work, but Yuri was so lovable that I was willing to work a little harder for suspension of disbelief. Pretty well written, decent characters. I liked the love interest's family more than I liked her, but she wasn't so bad. And I found Yuri so relatable and adorable that I would read about his misadventures even when they don't involve saving the world.
krissyronan's review against another edition
4.0
Liked this book! Funnier than a book about a physicist trying to stop an asteroid from colliding with earth should be.
settingshadow's review against another edition
5.0
This was the most adorable. Exactly what I needed in a cozy, lazy dark days of December. I'm not usually one for a rom-com, but throw in some astrophysics, an existential plot about fitting in and some high school bully revenge fantasy and now, you're speaking my language.
This reminded me in all the best ways of [a:Lydia Netzer|4886414|Lydia Netzer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1384708162p2/4886414.jpg]'s book: a book about nerds told from the perspective of someone who clearly loves nerds, a dry sense of humor and a heavy hand of astronomy as both critical plot driver and also metaphor for trying to find one's place in the world.
This reminded me in all the best ways of [a:Lydia Netzer|4886414|Lydia Netzer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1384708162p2/4886414.jpg]'s book: a book about nerds told from the perspective of someone who clearly loves nerds, a dry sense of humor and a heavy hand of astronomy as both critical plot driver and also metaphor for trying to find one's place in the world.
heisereads's review against another edition
3.0
Was a good book. Hard to put down as the countdown continued.