This book with its unique title will stick with you for a long time after you have read it! While it doesn’t release until January 2021, the book was published in German in March 2020 and I can’t wait for more to read it!
Evie and Caleb have been friends since the have been four years old. They live next to each other and they are BFFs for life. Caleb would do anything or Evie, literally. When she decides to do pursue a career as a mathematician, he looked for something similar and went for math and programming. When she wanted to go to Newton Academy, a private boarding school for science, he packed his bags and followed her. Caleb is the one who Evie can count on, when she feels her anxiety building up. He is the only person who truly understands her. She feels safe when he is around.
You might have guessed in which direction this story will go. Yes, of course Caleb is heads over heels in love with Evie and even tried 17 times to kiss her, but Evie’s one true love is mathematics and she never was interested in dating anyone. Maybe one day she will be ready to make place for another kind of love and will pick him to fill that spot.
But Caleb was not prepared for Evie to fall in love with a physics solution and becoming interested in the boy who wrote it, Leo. Encouraged by her therapist to form new relationships, she starts a relationship in which she gets her first ever boyfriend.
Bex, Evie’s and Caleb’s best friend since they started Newton Academy, knows that Caleb’s feelings for Evie are more then just staying her best friend. She tries to encourage him to make a move. When Evie wants to apply for Frontier, a conference for future scientists, she is afraid to do it by herself and asks Caleb to work on her project with her. When they must create an online profile on Frontier’s homepage without revealing who they are, Caleb sees his chance to confess his feelings to Evie without triggering her anxiety.
This book was an absolute joy to read and it can essentially be described asThe Big Bang Theory meets Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. Evie even reminds me of Sheldon with only having eyes for her study, only having a small amount of people she calls friends and trusts, followed by falling in love unexpectedly.
Despite the cute love story surrounded by things I have never understood in school, this book won me over talking freely about anxiety and social disorder. I cannot speak for everyone, but for me it was described the way that a lot can recognise.
Parks puts the spotlight on everyone who cannot deal with Evie and her problems as well. It is shown how hard it is for the person suffering to not feel weak and in the need of help all the time, while showing that some people around such a person is coping with it differently.
While Evie’s own mother treats her like a fragile vase and does not agree with her on everything that she sees as a too high obstacle to achieve, Caleb acts normal…whatever normal is. He knows what Evie can or cannot bear, listens, and is empathetic. He leaves her be and the moment she needs him, he is there to calm her down and encourage her to do not stop trying. When you suffer from anxiety, you do not want to hear that you will not be able to achieve your goal, you want someone to just be there so that you feel strong enough to make your next step.
Personally, I did not like how fast Evie and Leo’s relationship evolved. At some point I understood that Evie did not understand it herself. But from not forming relationships at all to dating a guy was nothing I could wrap my head around.
Another aspect I love about this book is that there is the never-ending battle between science and religion as Parks has included Bex, a character with a religious background. Why does a girl with a father as a priest goes to a school for future scientist? That question, as well as how Caleb may or may not have win Evie over, will be answered when you pick up this book and start reading.
The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of January 5th 2021.
Will you be picking up The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
Caleb has always assumed that when she was ready for romance, Evie would choose him. Because he is her best friend, and he loves her, and he has almost kissed her 17 times…
Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has never been interested in dating. She’s been fully occupied by her love of mathematics and her frequent battles with anxiety (and besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be a little bit icky). But with the help of her best friend and her therapist, Evie’s feeling braver. Maybe even brave enough to enter a prestigious physics competition and to say yes to the new boy who’s been flirting with her.
Caleb Covic knows Evie isn’t ready for romance but assumes that when she is, she will choose him. So Caleb is horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet cute with a floppy-haired, mathematically gifted transfer student. Because Caleb knows the girl never falls for the funny best friend when there’s a mysterious stranger around, he decides to use an online forum to capture Evie’s interest. Now, he’s got Evie wondering if it’s possible to fall in love with a boy she’s never met.
Told in the alternating voices of Evie and Caleb, THE QUANTUM WEIRDNESS OF THE ALMOST KISS is a YA romantic comedy, sure to satisfy fans of Jenny Han, Rainbow Rowell and Stephanie Perkins.
