The Fragile Ordinary

by Samantha Young

Elle Newlands (Narrator)

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Impossible Vastness of Us and the On Dublin Street series comes a heartfelt and beautiful new young adult fiction novel, set in Scotland, about daring to dream and embracing who you are.

I am Comet Caldwell.

And I sort of, kind of, absolutely hate my name.

People expect extraordinary things from a girl named Comet. That she'll be effortlessly cool and light up a room the way a comet blazes across the sky.

But Comet has never wanted to be the centre of attention. She can't wait to graduate from high school in Edinburgh and leave to attend university somewhere far, far away.

When new student Tobias King blazes in from America and shakes up the school, Comet thinks she's got the bad boy figured out. Until they're thrown together for a class assignment and begin to form an unlikely connection.

• ISBN10: 1538516802
• ISBN13: 9781538516805
• Publish Date: 26 June 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Harlequin Teen
• Edition: Library Edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 10 hours and 50 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Romance Schmomance]

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Let me start off with by saying I haven't read a YA book that was so deeply rooted, emotionally, in such a long time. I think it was Colleen Hoover's YA books that have done that and it has been quite a few years since I've read her YAs. I never expected to find myself so emotionally in tune with the heroine, Comet. I loved her character so much and was looking forward to seeing her growth into someone who was stronger.

I haven't read a book that has made me cry more than once in a long time. As beautiful and amazing Comet was, I hated that she didn't have much support from the people that truly mattered. A young girl, no, woman, who has so much to say and offer, and shows it constantly through her poetry. We experience every bit of her happiness, wonder, and pain through her words. And the fact the even sometimes her friends never understood her, it just made my heartbreak for her even more. It was hard to watch Comet take what they threw at her, but eventually, she would come into her own and finally start speaking for herself. And what a beautiful sight that was.

Comet and Tobias made it so easy to love their budding relationship. They're exactly what they needed, they definitely brought the best out of each other. But these two together evoked so much emotion out of me that brought on the waterworks. I can't exactly pinpoint what it was, but the moments where Comet would finally put herself out there and reveal bits and pieces of herself. And Tobias trying to be someone he's not, the pain Comet endured from that will really make your heartache.

Like many teenagers, there's a lot of experiences happening in such a short amount of time. I'm sure we can all remember and relate. I appreciated those relatable topics that were shared in this book, it just made everything much more real. It was another side of being a teenager and the possible outcome of following the wrong crowd. At which point do you stop trying to help someone who doesn't want to be helped? Or when do you finally tell yourself that you're going down the wrong road and need to make a change before it's too late? Decisions are tough as a teenager, I know I didn't make the greatest ones, but I sure did learn from them. It's not easy being a teenager.

For once I didn't mind the teenage angst, Samantha Young was able to convey so much through her words that it was easy to look past a lot of things. I related to Comet in the sense of being a bookworm and I'm sure all my fellow bookworms would have to agree. Since this was my first time reading Young's books, I'll definitely be going through her other books.

I just need to say this, I totally understand not wanting to be in social situations, it doesn't make anyone a bad person or unlikeable. We all have our comfort zones and yes, while I do believe we should always push ourselves past those limits. I'd never try to do it towards the point where it would bring me anxiety. I loved Comet's character, she hated being in the spotlight, avoided social situations, but you have to commend her for her growth and how much stronger she turned out in the end. For someone who essentially has no parental upbringing, she's been navigating life on her own, I'd say she was doing the best she could in her circumstances, which is fan-freaking-tastic for not having nurturing and loving parents.

Absolutely amazing read that I'll be re-reading over and over again!

[Rowena]

Samantha Young strikes again. This was another enjoyable YA romance that had me all in my feels. These teens were young but they weren't young and dumb and I liked that. Smart, strong and totally capable young people learning and growing into their own. Full review to come.

[kalventure]

"No matter what was happening in my life, in my room, I had over eight hundred worlds to disappear into, and over a thousand on my e-reader on my nightstand."

Meet Comet, a sixteen year old bookish daughter to indifferent and inattentive parents. She wants to make herself invisible, or perhaps give a reason for feeling invisible, and escapes her own reality into the world of books. Her home life broke my heart into pieces, and I can relate to her quite a bit.

The voice of the book (first person POV) is definitely that of a sixteen year old girl, and the first 20% or so of the book was painful for me to read: it felt awkward, forced, and uncomfortable. The choices and actions Comet made early on made me cringe, but I cannot fault her for her early actions as over the course of the book she grew up a lot. As an adult that reads YA on occasion, I understand that I am not the target audience and would never fault a book for catering to the YA reader. However, I did feel like I was being told about a lot of stuff, mostly being caught up on backstory as Comet recalled them for the reader, rather than being shown and it felt to me a bit like a mashing of experiences that didn't really gel. I find that first person narration works best with stories that are developing, and it felt like there was a whole lot of backstory dumped all at once for the first 20% or so of the book. I considered not continuing with the book because it didn't seem that the writing style was for me, but I am so glad that I stuck with it because interestingly, I found my experience reading the first third of the book in stark contrast to the latter two-thirds. It was almost as if it were written separately. This could have been because of the massive info dump at the beginning, but the story really pulled me in around 25% or so.

While this is a character-driven story, I found myself frustrated with most of them a large amount of the time. Many of the characters are harboring a painful past that causes them to act out, but most of it seemed to be for the purpose of Comet's development. I really only liked Comet and Tobias as characters, but their relationship for me didn't quite sit right either. It was like insta-love and not at the same time, and that is just a trope I am not overly fond of in fiction. Don't get me wrong: I adored Tobias. I just didn't quite buy the development of their relationship or feelings.

I really enjoyed that snippets of Comet's poetry began each of the chapters in the book, it was a nice touch that really drove home the importance of poetry to Comet, her creative outlet, and a bit into her innermost thoughts. I enjoyed watching Comet come into herself through the course of the book and opening up to those around her.

Despite the book taking a bit of time to find its voice, the pacing is good and I did not ever find myself bored with what I was reading. I did find it odd that only a couple characters spoke with the Scottish 'accent' in the book when this is set in Scotland; it seemed an odd choice to me given that everyone but Tobias (who is American) would speak roughly the same way. There was a lack of worldbuilding that unfortunately for me seems to be common in contemporaries, and with this novel much more care is given to the characters and their development. I like character driven novels with descriptions of the city/world they inhabit.

This is a painful coming of age story where Comet begins to find her voice beyond the anonymity of posting her poetry online; in trusting herself; in standing up for herself. In creating your own surrogate family and realizing that life is short. Being a teenager is difficult and I think the overall story depicts the struggles of growing apart from friends as interests and people change. I think that teen readers will likely enjoy this novel about finding the beauty and joy in life's ordinary.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Harlequin Teen, for providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.