I\u2019ve long claimed that Taylor Jenkins Reid is my favorite author. Her newest release, \u201cAtmosphere,\u201d comes after her\u00a0four New York Times bestsellers, which were all some of my personal favorites. So, when I got my hands on \u201cAtmosphere,\u201d my expectations were understandably high.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t feel at all disappointed after closing the final page on this book, but I would say that the story seemed to shrink in the shadow of Jenkins Reid\u2019s previous novels. At its core, \u201cAtmosphere\u201d is a story of radical love in unexpected places. And it\u2019s a beautiful one. I adored the world that Jenkins Reid built.<\/p>\n
Set in the 1980s, \u201cAtmosphere\u201d follows Joan Goodwin as she leaves her job as a professor of physics and astronomy to be one of the first women scientists to join NASA\u2019s Space Shuttle program. As Joan trains to become an astronaut, she discovers herself through unexpected challenges, locations and people, reorganizing all of her beliefs about herself and the universe she studies.<\/p>\n
As she always does, Jenkins Reid crafted wonderfully interesting and complex characters in \u201cAtmosphere.\u201d Observant and reserved Joan Goodwin is accompanied by the easygoing John Griffin, cunning Lydia Danes, determined Vanessa Ford and endearing Frances Goodwin. Each character brings a unique personality and charming relationship to this story.<\/p>\n
Though I dearly loved each character, there were a lot of them, and they came all at once. As I read the first few chapters of this book, I frequently flipped back pages and reread sections to remember who everyone was.<\/p>\n
Once I got past the initial challenge of knowing each character, I was happy that there were so many of them. Scenes that showcased Joan and her niece\u2019s relationship or focused on the group of aspiring astronauts hanging out together were ones I found myself smiling through. These scenes were full of fast-paced, witty banter and insightful dialogue, paired with superb scene description. The resulting character dynamics were worth pushing through the berating of names and job titles at the beginning of the book.<\/p>\n
My biggest complaint about this book is that it felt rushed in the beginning. Apart from the slew of characters thrown at the reader in the first few chapters, I felt like the characters began having \u201cmeaning of life\u201d conversations too quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was clear that Jenkins Reid had things she wanted to say and themes she wanted to explore, and whether the characters were ready or not, she ensured they were addressed. The lack of character development leading up to these early conversations made me, as a reader, care about them less because I didn\u2019t know the characters well enough. Even more, it made the dialogues themselves feel unnatural and forced because I didn\u2019t feel like the characters knew each other well enough to justify the interactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although the presentation of some themes could have been better timed, the messages were beautiful. \u201cAtmosphere\u201d examined religion, identity, the stars, love and the hardships of being a woman. Each theme was vibrant and handled with care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve long claimed that Taylor Jenkins Reid is my favorite author. Her newest release, \u201cAtmosphere,\u201d comes after her\u00a0four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[223,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-13443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}