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skipreads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mass/school shootings
notmaddi's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
owloutstanding's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
kalynwebb's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
hannah_rachel's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
kelleemoye's review against another edition
3.0
This one is hard for me because I overall really liked the book, especially the setting and all of the supporting characters. The book is quirky and funny and heartfelt. But I really had a problem with not knowing about Simon’s tragedy before reading. Although the author added a trigger warning that the book was about PTSD after a tragedy, the tragedy is left a mystery until it is revealed within the book and I was not ready at that moment to read a book about what the tragedy was. Because of this, it took away from my being able to love the book.
adriannawaters's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
panda_incognito's review against another edition
2.0
Content warnings: Traumatic flashbacks to a school shooting, a realistic portrayal of how trauma and grief affect families, a few instances of cursing, and some sexual references, usually involving animal private parts.
This book has an amazing cover and an interesting premise, and it started out really well, but it ended up dragging a lot, and I skimmed some in the second half. This felt like an attempt to tell two different stories that didn't fit together into a single plot arc. The story of Simon trying to cope with his PTSD from surviving a school shooting was fairly compelling, but it didn't fit well with the small town comedy story, and the author takes way too long to start talking about what happened to him.
It's not a surprise twist. The key details are stated in the jacket copy. Still, the author keeps spooling out this Big Secret and dropping hints through Simon's first-person narration. It's perfectly natural for a trauma victim to want to suppress and not acknowledge their experiences, but the way that the author used it for suspense ended up feeling forced and exploitative. This also didn't fit well with everything else the author had going on in this book.
There is WAY too much going on in this imaginary town. There's humor and drama with Simon's dad's job at the local Catholic church, his mom's funeral parlor, his new friends and their parents, a service dog in training that Simon adopts, a harebrained scheme to fake a message from outer space, and a whole lot of animal hijinks that get prolonged sequences in the book. The story ends up feeling overstuffed, with lots of lengthy scenes that didn't really advance the plot or the characters.
The one plot element I greatly disliked was the kids' attempt to fool the local scientists by faking a message from outer space. There's a ton of boring science talk that will only appeal to the most enthusiastically STEM-minded kids, and there's a lot of gross irresponsibility and lack of courtesy involved at every stage of this project. Simon is too shy and/or passive to tell his new friend that this is a bad idea, or that he doesn't want to be involved in it. He just gets dragged along, buying into the argument that a mysterious new message will help the scientists keep their jobs and maintain the National Quiet Zone.
The kids technically get in trouble, but not majorly. The book doesn't really deal with the consequences of their actions, or how lucky they were to get caught then, not much later into the news media frenzy and scientific investigation. The characters never adequately acknowledge how rude, wasteful, untrustworthy, and damaging their behavior was, and then the author tells us in the author's note that she made up some of the details about the search for extraterrestrial life, so we're not even sure which science facts we learned are accurate, kids!
This book portrays trauma in a mostly thoughtful and realistic way, and it includes some fun, humorous details about life in an unusual small town, but it never came together well as a novel. Even though I enjoyed this a lot at first, I ended up feeling eager to finish and felt weary of all the overstuffed eccentric craziness coming in every direction.
This book has an amazing cover and an interesting premise, and it started out really well, but it ended up dragging a lot, and I skimmed some in the second half. This felt like an attempt to tell two different stories that didn't fit together into a single plot arc. The story of Simon trying to cope with his PTSD from surviving a school shooting was fairly compelling, but it didn't fit well with the small town comedy story, and the author takes way too long to start talking about what happened to him.
It's not a surprise twist. The key details are stated in the jacket copy. Still, the author keeps spooling out this Big Secret and dropping hints through Simon's first-person narration. It's perfectly natural for a trauma victim to want to suppress and not acknowledge their experiences, but the way that the author used it for suspense ended up feeling forced and exploitative. This also didn't fit well with everything else the author had going on in this book.
There is WAY too much going on in this imaginary town. There's humor and drama with Simon's dad's job at the local Catholic church, his mom's funeral parlor, his new friends and their parents, a service dog in training that Simon adopts, a harebrained scheme to fake a message from outer space, and a whole lot of animal hijinks that get prolonged sequences in the book. The story ends up feeling overstuffed, with lots of lengthy scenes that didn't really advance the plot or the characters.
The one plot element I greatly disliked was the kids' attempt to fool the local scientists by faking a message from outer space. There's a ton of boring science talk that will only appeal to the most enthusiastically STEM-minded kids, and there's a lot of gross irresponsibility and lack of courtesy involved at every stage of this project. Simon is too shy and/or passive to tell his new friend that this is a bad idea, or that he doesn't want to be involved in it. He just gets dragged along, buying into the argument that a mysterious new message will help the scientists keep their jobs and maintain the National Quiet Zone.
The kids technically get in trouble, but not majorly. The book doesn't really deal with the consequences of their actions, or how lucky they were to get caught then, not much later into the news media frenzy and scientific investigation. The characters never adequately acknowledge how rude, wasteful, untrustworthy, and damaging their behavior was, and then the author tells us in the author's note that she made up some of the details about the search for extraterrestrial life, so we're not even sure which science facts we learned are accurate, kids!
This book portrays trauma in a mostly thoughtful and realistic way, and it includes some fun, humorous details about life in an unusual small town, but it never came together well as a novel. Even though I enjoyed this a lot at first, I ended up feeling eager to finish and felt weary of all the overstuffed eccentric craziness coming in every direction.