The Square Root of Summer

February 15, 2016
Love, loss, and unpredictable two-way wormholes haunt Gottie in this bildungsroman. Gottie's first loss, at age 12, was her best friend, who moved away and never wrote. Her second was her beloved grandfather, immediately followed by the third, when her first love distanced himself from her. One summer later, Gottie's grief hasn't lessened, and she's experiencing strange things--the world "screenwipes," only to drop her off in various moments in the past. A math prodigy, Gottie seeks to explain what's happening in terms of physics and numbers, but mounting evidence that she can't ignore--especially what happens when both her old friend and her ex-love return to her life--points to a relationship between grief and the breaks in reality. Some readers may be confused by the narrative's leaps among timelines and alternate realities--especially as Gottie is accepting of the wormholes, keeping them secret and stoically rolling with the punches--but the robust web of relationships and multidimensional secondary characters provide anchors. While Gottie learns a lot--not just physics, but also about people and life--her revelations come as slow developments instead of didactic lessons. The pacing ranges from slow to jerky, as time itself changes, looping and intersecting until finally artfully converging. A story of complex grief, love, and growth, best for intellectual romantics. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

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Starred review from March 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-This debut novel is a love story involving the chaos of loss, grief, and guilt. Seventeen-year-old Gottie has spent the entire school year living in a shroud of mourning. The end of the previous summer brought the death of grandfather Grey, who practically raised her after her mother died. Jason, her first love, left for college shortly after the funeral without a word of goodbye, along with her brother. Alone with her grieving father, Gottie retreated inside herself, refusing to communicate with anyone. Now, with the start of another summer vacation, her brother and Jason are back, and the best friend who disappeared from her life five years ago has suddenly returned. All during her childhood, Thomas and Gottie were inseparable, but when they were 12, Thomas's family moved away. She still harbors resentment over his failure to keep in touch. Her unbearable grief, guilt over a wish she fears may have hastened her grandfather's death, and the reappearance of people who she feels once abandoned her catapults Gottie into time (and mind) bending episodes of both reliving and reinventing the past. As the anniversary of Grey's death approaches, Gottie fears she may be forced to relive the worst day of her life. Almost identical in theme to Heather Sappenfield's Life at the Speed of Us (Flux, 2016), this work takes a more sophisticated and believable approach to integrating space/time anomalies into the story line. VERDICT An emotional roller-coaster ride worth taking.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2016
Grades 9-12 Which is harder, understanding string theory or the true meaning of love? Seventeen-year-old Gottie, a furtive math genius, is trying to comprehend these complex quandaries as she faces a whole summer of living under the same roof as a friend she thought she'd never see againenigmatic Thomas, who moved away five years agowhile being forced to coexist with a too-recent ex. And all of this while learning to live in a universe without her beloved grandfather. Meanwhile, her profound sense of loss and grief is catapulting her around the space-time continuum, showing her glimpses of worlds that might have been and giving her a practical application for her studies in theoretical physics. Liberally sprinkled with references to quantum mechanics, this sophisticated, magic-realism-tinged debut considers some big questions while keeping its feet firmly planted in the realities of human emotion. Though some readers might be encumbered by the underlying presence of advanced mathematics and science throughout the story, Hapgood's novel will lodge in the hearts of readers looking for a brainier take on romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)