The Gravity of Us

🚀 let me be honest......did i just hug this book tight after finishing it ¿!! oh heck i did !!!! it just warmed me soo good that i couldn’t stop thinking about these astrokids love story.🚀 well i wouldn’t lie to you but i did felt like few parts of this book was boring you know with little politics in it & few space stuff but again few romantic moments & mental issues felt soo realistic which made me nothing but fall in love for this.🚀 this is the book where i loved side characters much better than the main ones cuz seriously “Calvin lewis Jr” did felt immature when it’s comes to friendship with “Deb” ( who is cal’s bff )🚀 but whatever the issues are.....i loved the way our two astrokids “leon & cal” were there for eachother......the ache inside Cal to always be there for leon felt soo good.🚀 So our main character “Cal” always wanted to be a journalist & he indeed has got a little good fame on this flashfame app where he goes live with latest news.....he never wanted to leave brooklyn, Nyc but his dad’s got selected for NASA’s orpheus project with one mission “humans on mars”.....so he had to live everything behind including his best friend “Ded” & move along with his family to houston, texas. and he meets “leon” another main character whose mother is also a selected astronaut for orpheus project.....soon they get to know about eachother & fall for eachother which is very likely to be seen in every other book we read 😬🚀 but that’s not all it, and i’m really astound by the way story goes on from there.....i did love the concept & plot crafted by the author here....cheers to that & i’d definitely recommend it to anyone out there who’s looking for drama, romance, family dynamics & most importantly astrokids first kiss.

I loved it so much..it was very cute💕I really love Phil's work nd can't wait to read his upcoming books🤲✨

The book is pretty light-headed , have a little cute story and a little drama , not have much science fiction stuff .Overall for me it is fine .

You can find more about this particular title and other at my bookstagram - @chai_n_booksI went into this book expecting a lot of cute romance, some sci-fi angle and a nice story. I came out with a very cute but rushed romance, a sci-fi (not exactly tho) grounded in reality and a satisfying story. Written by a debutant writer, Phil, this books takes you on a small journey with Calvin Lewis Jr , our protagonist who’s dream is to become a journalist. He’s already done a lot of stuff and is pretty popular on social media. He is also confused with his sexuality and has a lot of unresolved issues which very often leads to a lot of anxiety. His life takes a sharp turn when his dad is suddenly chosen by NASA for their Mars Spaceship program and they relocate to Houston where all families working for NASA live in. Cal Jr. isn’t ready for all the paparazzi that surrounds him (and the family) and the hit reality Tv show that makes its money by covering the “perfect lives” (it’s anything but perfect) astronaut families.:Here he meets Leon, another astrokid. Sparks fly and before either of them can understand what’s happening, they fall hard for each other. (gushing already) But, both of them soon realise that they have issues of their own which definitely needs to be addressed. Cal tries to “fix” a lot of these problems (and also of his family) but ends up doing more harm than good. The whole debate around can humans be fixed or is it best to let them be who they are and accept them as they come, even if they are a little(or way too much) broken is brought in the centre.:What happens next, whether he “fixes” all his mess he created or not and whether he and Leon end up together or not is something that you’d have to read yourself to figure out because I really would like you to take that journey for yourself. But in case you’re unsure, here’s a HINT: IT DOES’NT HAVE A SAD ENDING :P:Phil’s debutant book is good. It’s full of the flush of first love. It touches upon some of the important themes like mental health, the reality of television showbiz and family dynamics. It checks the right boxes and while it mate have flaws (I’ll cover them in seperate post) , they can be overlooked and forgiven.

It's really beautiful and cute story..I really don't know much about Space things..i really really enjoyed this cute story of Junior Cal and Leon

as i lay on my bed writing this review after completing this book in the morning, i. i thank the author for writing it and for sharing it with us. my love and support to you. i loved the book.

This was so beyond insta-love-y. I couldn't see a single reason why these guys liked each other, other than maybe that they had no other teenagers around. It was very flimsy and there were all these declarations of love, cue eye-rolls.The amount of curveballs that this book throws at you, at one point you just want to give up and let it hit you in the face. All the drama seemed so unnecessary and seemed extremely made up to feed the MC's ego. Like, I know that is what books are supposed to do, have the universe revolve around the MC but there is a limit to what I can accept.Alll the science stuff was pretty fun tho, which bumped my rating from maybe 1.5 stars to 2 stars. It made the entire book bearable and occasionally enjoyable for me.

There are too many things stopping me from liking this book but I think my main issue is that the author is trying to tackle too many topics at once. It’s entirely jammed with themes surrounding social media, journalistic integrity, how the past is not as fantastic as nostalgia would lead us to believe, family dynamics, understanding people, treating people well - all while trying to weave in a queer love story. It’s a bit much for my liking - almost to the point where it felt like the love story itself wasn’t even necessary - it didn’t really add anything much to the rest of the story.On top of this, I felt like the messages that Stamper is trying to convey are a bit forced and obvious. If you’re trying to teach people something, this isn’t the way to go about it. I got a lot of “reality tv bad - social media good” messages coming through - a sort of “the old ways of doing things lack integrity now” vibe. It was as if the book was saying social media stars these days are in it for all the right reasons whereas old journalists are all about ratings. There wasn’t much explored by way of the harm social media can do - it was all about streaming being more real and raw than scripted and edited “reality” tv shows - but nothing you find online or on tv is a true portrayal of reality. It may be a difference in perspective which made me not really enjoy this book, but this is my opinion.One last grievance is the constant descriptions of outfits... Never have I gotten to the end of a book and thought: “That would have been so much better if I knew what everyone was wearing.” Again, just my opinion, but there you have it.

I really liked the idea of this story - space mission in jeopardy, social media journalism, bit of LGBT thrown in. Instead, what I found myself reading was a Mills and Boon style romance (that develops too quickly), with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. If you like trashy love stories, you might like this. I wanted more sci-fi plot than I got. Actually I wanted more plot - I found it quite an unsatisfying read, but it wasn't so bad that I stopped reading it, so it gets 3 stars. Good idea, poorly executed.

I've read a lot of YA LGBT+ fiction and most of it has been very good to great, so it's a shame that Phil Stamper's 'The Gravity of Us' is the first I've come across that's mediocre. I had several problems with the novel: its lack of distinctive character description, leaving you with little idea what any of them look like (it's kind of like the literary equivalent of coming into a show a few episodes in and not knowing who any of the characters are supposed to be), and character development that feels rather rote; the at times clunky dialogue that just didn't sound like something people would actually say; and the plot, which felt more like something from a children's book rather than a YA novel, even if the burgeoning queer relationship at its heart puts it on a higher shelf. While the intent is there and it deals with some worthy issues, the execution just never really convinced me unfortunately.

Plot:Cal is an amateur journalist living in Brooklyn, he does live reports on the FlashFame app which has won him an impressive following, an upcoming Buzzfeed internship and a foot into the world of journalism. But this begins to fall apart as his father is hired as the final astronaut in a team heading to Mars. Cal and his family are relocated to Houston. A reality show sponsoring the Mars mission has complete monopoly over the astronauts and their families - Cal can no longer make content on FlashFame and he and his family are forced to join this reality show. He meets the son of another astronaut, Leon, and falls fast, all while learning more about the mission and the realities of the media.My thoughts:This book was so good!! I’m not a massive space fan and I really don’t know a lot about the space race back in the 60s but this book has made me so interested in it! It explores more of how the families were treated and puts it in a more modern setting, with reality TV and social media.I really liked the characters, the setting and just the whole story. The writing was so gripping and easy to read. I loved the aspect of Cal’s journalism and what he does with it during the book (I don’t want to spoil what it is but there’s just such a great energy that comes with it and I really loved the atmosphere). I loved the ways this book explored the media and social media, it was really interesting to read and I loved the inclusion of the transcripts of the show.I also loved that Cal and Leon’s relationship was never made a big deal of or outed without their consent through the media. It is something that could have been dramatised and used to cause pain and I’m just so glad it wasn’t (this section is just me having low expectations and nothing against this book!). There was no negativity about their relationship or any homophobia which is something I love and appreciate in books. This book also had rep and discussion of some other things such as mental health (depression and anxiety specifically).My only problem with this book was that I thought the relationship between Cal and Leon could have done with some more development. It felt a bit like love at first sight because it was so quick and we don’t see them really getting to know each other and growing closer much early on. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not love at first sight, I just wanted more.Overall, this book was so fun and consuming and sweet and I really loved reading it.*eARC received in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley* (and then preordered through Amazon because I loved it)

I love how this story shows the complexity of people and relationships. Families, friends, partners f - no relationship is straightforward because as humans we are complicated. I wanted to hate Cal's dad for how selfish he was, in truth I did a little bit, but his dream was big and he went for it. Can that be wrong? Was he right to expect Cal and his mum to just accept things? So many questions about motives and characters actions but it all just goes to show, and I know I'm overusing this word but it fits, how complex humanity is. Brilliant story.