Review: The Square Root of Summer

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

My Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Gottie H. Oppenheimer is losing time. Literally. When the fabric of the universe around her seaside town begins to fray, she’s hurtled through wormholes to her past:

To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn’t even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her best friend Thomas moved away and left her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory.

Although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie’s past, present, and future are about to collide—and someone’s heart is about to be broken.

With time travel, quantum physics, and sweeping romance, The Square Root of Summer is an exponentially enthralling story about love, loss, and trying to figure it all out, from stunning debut YA voice, Harriet Reuter Hapgood.

“A particle can be in two places at once. A particle can interfere with its own past. It can have multiple futures, and multiple pasts. The universe is complicated.”

The universe is complicated and so is this book. It’s a challenging read because it involves Math and Science with terms like Fractals, Wormholes and it also has a few equations. Nevertheless, I can say that this book is really about grief and coping up with loss.

I really enjoyed this book, it’s definitely one of those stories that would stick to to me and my memory. And if I wasn’t a bit confused because of all the for smart-people-stuff, I wouldn’t hesitate on giving this a five-star rating.

Things that I liked about this book:

• THAT COVER IS SO PRETTY, LET’S JUST GIVE A MINUTE TO APPRECIATE ITS PRETTINESS.
• Margot, who goes by Gottie which is a weird name, is an excellent main character. She’s pretty much a genius because she’s trying to figure out why she can visit the past through wormholes. She’s dealing with a lot of loss with her grandfather and mother, and even a broken heart. I couldn’t exactly relate to her but I felt like we had an emotional connection.
• The time-travel and other Science stuff. Yeah, it’s confusing but it brought the book to a higher level and I could say that the author really tried to make the terms understandable, and I really enjoyed reading them. The time travelling was good too because it showed different past events which gave depth to the relationship of Gottie with the other characters.
• Her deceased Grandfather, Grey which was her father-figure when he was still alive. He was like this cool and hippie person who believes in a lot of hippie and organic stuff.
• The characters were not black and white. Each character has their own personality and are quite diverse—The lead singer older brother with a quirky fashion sense, the lesbian bestfriend who has stage-fright, the German father— to name some of them. And each character had an important role.
• All those German words because it sounds funny sometimes and I don’t know I just like when they use German expressions. It adds some fun in the reading experience.
• The family aspect. Like I said this is really a story about grief and losing important people in your life. I love how this was also a journey of Margot’s family towards realizing that they still had each other despite of Grey’s death.
• THOMAS. He’s the childhood bestfriend who returned this summer and I was automatically like BOOK BOYFRIEND ALERT! The romance was super cutesy, fluffy and it was not insta-love. It was more like friendship-taken-on-the-next-level kind of relationship. Thomas made me smile so many times because he was so sweet and HE IS A BAKER. (like Peeta, I don’t know why but all male bakers remind me of him)
• The Paradoxical time loop. Reading that last part felt like Physics class where my head hurts just from TRYING to understand what my teacher is talking about. But even though it was hard to understand, and I had to read it slowly to digest every word, the idea and concept of it was brilliant! I really liked it how it made the past and future all connected, it kind of reminded me of that Phineas and Ferb episode where they time traveled and there was this future Candace and stuff.
• I loved that infinity thing with the piece of paper at the end!

Things that I did not liked about this book:

• Time-travel and Math and Science stuff. There were times that it was just too much, and I really couldn’t understand all those terms. And then I wished I was smarter so that my head wouldn’t hurt.
• JASON. Margot’s ex-boyfriend last summer, their relationship was seriously some insta-love lust, especially with Jason’s part.

 

There’s a wormhole reaching for me, and I’m bruises and hurt as I hold on to him. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to do this anymore, but I don’t know how to stop it. I’m here. I want to exist. I’m ready to live in the world again, but the world won’t let me.

Throughout the book, I kept thinking about if Margot was really travelling through space and time in Wormholes or was it just all in her head brought by all that grief in her heart. It really bothered me if this was a Science-Fiction book or just a Contemporary, but I kind of believe that it all did happen because of the ending.

Do I recommend this book? Well, I would definitely recommend this to the First Honor in my class, I can feel that she’ll loved this and that her head wouldn’t hurt (unlike mine). I can also see myself re-reading this in the future when I’m already smarter, and I might then give this 5 stars. Anyways, YES I DO RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE WHO LOVES SCIENCE AND ALSO TO THOSE WHO DOES NOT. It may give you a headache or two but it’s really bearable, and it is also a fun read with a promising cutesy romance! THOMAS IS DEFINITELY WORTH THE HEADACHE.

This book should definitely be turned into a movie, it has the perfect production and I can already see that awesome transition whenever Margot travels through a wormhole. I would definitely watch this! I hope it does become a movie, the Science would become more bearable too.

To conclude, this book is very well-written, with beautiful characters, a great romance, and it will take you through wormholes and different timelines. Definitely an amazing read.

This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It’s a little bit like a black hole. It’s a little bit like infinity.

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That’s all, thank you so much for reading. If you want to read more book reviews from this blog, just click here. And you could also find my reviews in Goodreads.