Dear Universe

by Florence Gonsalves

Dear Universe,Sorry for interrupting you with my presence, but I'm wondering if you could have my back for once. I recently had a massive chin zit and a period stain you could see from space and my boyfriend kissed someone else and also my dad is dying faster than usual. If you could show up during my last English class so I can graduate and like achieve my potential or something, I'd appreciate it.It's senior year, and Chamomile Myles has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to prom, torturous college applications, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father's terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun- and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her worlds--and helps her open up a new road between them.Dear Universe is the dazzling follow-up to Florence Gonsalves's debut, Love and Other Carnivorous Plants, hailed by School Library Journal as 'a must-have sharp, powerful, and witty immersion into the complexities of...mental health.'

• ISBN10: 0316436739
• ISBN13: 9780316436731
• Publish Date: 4 June 2020
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
• Imprint: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Cham was looking forward to filling her senior year time capsule box with all the expected memory markers - ticket stub, corsages, prom pictures, but the stress and strain of trying to keep her two worlds apart finally takes it toll, and things begin to fall apart.

Though I didn't necessarily understand all of Cham's choices, I respected her need to compartmentalize her life. For four years, she kept her life at school separate from her life at home. She made excuses and left out details in order to keep her friends from discovering her father's illness. She carried the weight of watching her father fade, and worrying that he would die, sooner than later, to herself. I found it sort of heartbreaking, that she forced herself to go through this alone, and was sort of happy, when he worlds began to collide. Brenden might have been a bit odd, but it was easy to see how huge his heart was. I liked that he became part of his world. I wish Gonsalves had given more time to that friendship, because it was one worth exploring more. I also wish there had been a bit more resolution with respect to her family and her father's illness. There was time dedicated to how they didn't really accept it, but I needed there to be more to that story.

Overall: This was a rather honest, and sometimes heartbreaking, look at the messy parts of life, and I enjoyed spending this time with Cham as she tried to figure out her place in the universe.

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