ARC Review: The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

August 19, 2013 / 8 Comments / Review, Uncategorized

The Infinite Moment of Us
Author: Lauren Myracle (website | twitter)

Publisher: Amulet Books
Source: eARC from Netgalley
Expected publication date: August 20, 2013 (tomorrow!)
My rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

Goodreads synopsis:
For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now… not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is painfully aware of his heart’s desire. A gentle boy with a troubled past, Charlie has loved Wren since the day he first saw her. But a girl like Wren would never fall for a guy like Charlie—at least not the sort of guy Charlie believes himself to be.

And yet certain things are written in the stars. And in the summer after high school, Wren and Charlie’s souls will collide. But souls are complicated, as are the bodies that house them…

Sexy, romantic, and oh-so-true to life, this is an unforgettable look at first love from one of young adult fiction’s greatest writers.

Review:

This is a good summer read – and not just because it’s set IN the summer. Myracle captures that hazy summer, perfect-life feeling you get when you first fall in love and nothing matters but you, your significant other, and being together all the time. I was taken back to my first relationship and to the innocence of thinking that everything would be perfect – and that’s a beautiful thing to feel in the summertime.


No review would be complete without mentioning that this is a sexy book – there is sex in it, and there’s a lot of foreplay and all the heavy stuff that comes before that, too. While I felt that these scenes were well-written, they did occasionally feel gratuitous – but only occasionally. Mostly, I felt that the longing, desire and passion of the characters made Charlie and Wren’s first love seem all the more real.

In terms of writing, I was occasionally jarred by a little too much telling versus showing – maybe it was just the style of the alternating third-person narrators, but I felt like we were TOLD so much about how Charlie and Wren were as people, rather than actually seeing what they were themselves. Because of that lack of “showing”, I felt like the plot and theme wandered. I never felt like there was a strong throughline taking me through the story other than “will they stay together or won’t they?”, which didn’t seem to be the point that the author was trying to make.

But this isn’t a book without depth. Myracle perfectly writes some of the idiotic fights borne out of fear that happen when you first get together with a person, and the worry that you’re being too selfish or not good enough for another person when you start a relationship. Both Charlie and Wren experience this, and it makes them extremely relateable – but occasionally, also a little bit whiny.

I admire Myracle’s courage in presenting us with characters who are not entirely likeable – Wren and Charlie both have some real mess-ups during the book, and they both have some major hang-ups, but they also had moments that really made me fist-pump for them: Wren dealing with her overbearing parents, Charlie’s attempt to make their “first time” perfect – those moments felt so true to life, and they’re the ones that made this a summer read to remember.

Bonuses:

Photo: Phillip Salzgeber

The Universe and Everything Else: My absolute favourite part of this book were the conversations Charlie and Wren had about biology, connectedness, fate, and the world. Not only are the conversations fascinating, but I also remember spending HOURS thinking and discussing similar ginormously huge subjects with my first boyfriend, and how much I loved how he respected and listened to me as we discussed and tried to sort out our own worldviews.

Photo: Flikie



Let’s Talk About Sex: While there might have been a bit too much groping for me, I did like how much the characters actually TALKED about and thought about sex. I remember spending a LOT of time thinking about sex and discussing sex and analyzing the perfect first time before actually doing it, and yeah, Myracle got that totally right.

Kick-Ass Supporting Characters: I seriously would have read a book about Wren’s best friend, the loud-mouthed, brash-but-wise Tessa, and her boyfriend P.G. over Wren and Charlie – that’s how much I loved those characters. They totally subverted popular-kid stereotypes, and their romance was pretty cool to witness secondhand (but it would have been better first-hand!)

The Final Word:

While it’s not a perfect read or my favourite read, The Infinite Moment of Us is a beautiful snippet of that weird not-quite-here-or-there time between high school and college, and the innocence and confusion of first love.

Recommended for: Teens 15+ and adults looking for a sexy, contemporary, nostalgic summer read

THE INFINITE MOMENT OF US comes out tomorrow. Will you be picking up a copy? Do you like your summer reads to have a little bit of depth and sex? How do you feel about relateable but sometimes whiny characters? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!


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8 responses to “ARC Review: The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

    • Yes! That's what it was – it was honest. Myracle doesn't pull any punches with the characters – they are really fallible, and they completely reminded me of myself as a teenager. Maybe that's why I found them a bit whiny? It made me squirm a bit.

    • I don't know what others are saying (I read one or two reviews, but I didn't notice anyone saying anything in particular about Starrla), but if it was about how dramatic she was…well, I'm not on that train. I thought the things she did and the way she did them made sense for the character and what she'd been through.

      If it was just about the fact that Starrla was an interruption to the Charlie-Wren story…well, of course she was. The book was written through the eyes of Charlie and Wren, of course that's all they'd see her as.

      I do wish we'd learned more about Starrla, but I also kind of appreciate that Myracle focused on the main characters, even though this book was definitely one where I was more interested in the secondary characters. Myracle made a choice and she stuck with it, so I'm pretty happy with that.

  1. Very pretty cover! This sounds like a really good story. I am a little concerned with the sex, but as long as it is handled well I am usually okay with it. I have heard some mixed things about this book, but it sounds like one of those that I would just like to try!

  2. I loved that this book didn't hold back anything. It felt real and raw and I was able to much better relate to all the characters. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

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