Book Review: Atmosphere

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will always cry when I read a Taylor Jenkins Reid book. I read her latest novel, Atmosphere, last week and it was as amazing as I thought it would be.

(I couldn’t decide which photo I liked more so I included both!)

The novel follows Joan Goodwin in the early 1980s. She is a professor of physics and astronomy and has always dreamt of going to space. The novel takes place in a dual timeline. The present time of the book is late December, 1984 and it flashes back to a 7 years earlier and moves forward to present day.

When Joan learns that NASA is allowing women to apply for the astronaut program she immediately applies. The novel follows her and her group, whom she becomes good friends with, training day in and day out to become astronauts. The group consists of scientists and military pilots. They work tirelessly to make their dreams come true – to go to space. Over time, they all become like family and Joan becomes especially close with Vanessa Ford. Joan had always felt like she just wasn’t the type of person to ever fall in love and get married – it never interested her. But when she gets to know Vanessa, she realizes she just hadn’t met her person yet. Their secret love unfolds as they prepare to go to space.

The novel starts in present day. Joan is serving as CAPCOM in Mission Control during Vanessa’s mission to space with their good friends Griffin, Lydia, Hank, and Steve. All is going well until an accident occurs putting the lives of everyone on the shuttle in jeopardy including Joan’s love. We follow Joan’s journey both in her career and personally through the book.

This book was an emotional rollercoaster. I loved every second of it, but like many TJR books it made me so anxious. I loved all the characters so it was very emotional for me with everything they went through. Well, scratch that – I did not love Joan’s sister Barb. But I loved everyone else so I cried multiple times throughout the book. I adored Joan’s little niece, Frances, and one of the times I cried the most was a scene with her in it. I don’t want to say too much and spoil the novel for anyone, but it is a book that had me in awe of everything astronauts do to train, had me amazed by the universe, and had me very emotional at times. I mean, I started tearing up just reading the author’s note at the start of the novel if that gives you any indication of how much of an emotional rollercoaster this novel is.

I finished this novel 6 days ago and I’m still processing it. It will definitely stick with me for a long time!

“Well, we are the stars,” Joan said. “And the stars are us. Every atom in our bodies was once out there. Was once a part of them. To look at the night sky is to look at parts of who you once were, who you may one day be.”

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