The cover for this book is wonderful and I was intrigued by the idea of a novel featuring a female protagonist who is excited by science. Sadly, Meg is portrayed as – and I quote the review material – a ‘science geek’, which only perpetuates the idea that a girl being interested in science is something to mock. The key concept of the novel focuses on Meg’s love of science and how she is desperate to win a competition to visit NASA.
What shone through immediately was the love Meg has for her subject. She is passionate about her love of the stars, but it’s also very clear that she uses this as an escape route to avoid having to deal with the emotional realities of her life, which is chaotic to say the least.
Meg lives with her mother and baby sister, and she very much seems to have adopted the role of ‘adult’ in her family set-up. She gains some respite from the relationship she shares with her grandfather, but none of the adult figures in her life give her the support you might expect. She gets support, but not from where we might expect.
Early on in the book Meg finds herself alone with her baby sister, as her mother has hopped on a plane to fly to Thailand in order to help with another Big Important Cause. Her mother is described as free-spirited, but her selfishness and immaturity just made me so angry. There’s nothing to find positive in an adult who simply abandons her children as she wants to do something useful…
Unfortunately for me, the basic concept of Meg’s family set-up annoyed me so much that I fear it tainted my reading. While the story was entertaining enough, I could not believe it would have worked out like this. Meg was a likeable character, but her growth as a person was not enough to overcome the intense irritation created by the situation she was placed in. This may be one that teen readers would really enjoy since Meg is resilient and copes admirably in the circumstances. Sadly, it did not find a fan in me.