Meet Me in Outer Space

by Melinda Grace

[Julie @ Struck by Stories]

From the minute I read the synopsis, I thought it would be the perfect book for me. Unfortunately, upon actually reading it, I found that I had a lot of issues with this. But, because I don't want to start this review on a negative note, I'll briefly list a few positive aspects of the book:

- The #OwnVoices rep was great! I felt like I really got to know a lot about what people with CAPD go through.
- I thought Edie's dedication to success (even in a class that she despises) was truly inspirational, especially given her disability.
- And finally, I loved how this was set in college. There's a terrible shortage of YA books in college (with Fangirl and Finding Felicity being the only two that I know of) and I'm super happy that authors like Melinda are stepping up to fill the gap!

But I have to end the positives there, because there are a couple of things that I would like to discuss:

- For one, I didn't really like Hudson and Edie's relationship, like, at all. It was super clear from the beginning that they both really liked each other a lot, but neither of them wanted to admit it. But when Hudson finally gathers the courage to do so, Edie runs scared because she wanted to only focus on getting to Paris for her semester abroad. I usually wouldn't be too upset about this, except for the fact that it fuels the myth that you can't have a long distance relationship (which, I would like to point out, you totally can!!)

- Also, Hudson's personality gave off a really young and juvenile vibe. It's weird, because even he's technically *at least* three years older than me, I saw him more as a freshman in high school than a mature adult.

- And speaking of characters, none of them were very well-developed. Because the story focused heavily on Edie and Hudson, we didn't really get to see too much of the other side characters in the book, which was really disappointing to me.

- And while I won't spoil the ending, I will say that I didn't think it really worked with the book. There were several unanswered questions, and I felt like an epilogue set in the future (maybe upon Edie's return from her summer abroad) would have made it much better.

Overall, I'm going to give this book 2.5 stars. Hopefully some of you guys will enjoy this more than I did.