The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper
Bloomsbury YA
Publication Date: February 4th, 2020
ISBN: 1547600144 (ISBN13: 9781547600144)
Calvin Lewis is a successful social media journalist with over half a million followers in Brooklyn. He wants his social media to make a difference. But his whole life is about change. Cal’s father has just been selected as an astronaut for a possible NASA mission to Mars. As wonderful as that is for his dad, Cal isn't too happy. It means he must move to Texas, away from his best friend, a promising internship and all he’s ever known. It also means that he must play his part on a reality show that documents the lives of the astronauts and their families. The only silver lining is Leon, the extremely cute son of another astronaut.
The book highlights many different themes like dealing with the struggles of teenager, wanted everyone to understand who you are and your hopes. Challenges of mental health, everything can look good on the outside, but be different on the inside. The book also addresses many other topics such as families, wanting a better world and learning not everything can be perfect.
If you find this a great read, you may also like We Contain Multitudes by Sarah Henstra and Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales. They mirror tones in The Gravity of Us, having to deal with the expectation’s others place on you and the struggles to find oneself.
--Jakeem Royal, Library Associate
As an extra bonus check out an interview with the author, Phil Stamper, from the Bloomsbury Bookshelf Newsletter's "Three Questions I Wish I Was Asked" column below!
My debut YA novel,The Gravity of Us, came out in February. In the days since, I’ve had the opportunity to speak about the book to people of all ages, from industry panels to an entire auditorium of high schoolers, and more. And I get alotof questions!
I love the prompt “Three Questions I Wish I Was Asked,” because authors often get the same questions:What does a normal writing day look like? What Hogwarts house is your main character in?And so on. But I actually don’t get those quite as often. My questions are usually more personal, specific to my being gay, my coming out experience, and so on. The panels I’m invited to usually focus on identity, which I love, but even there the conversation drifts more toward our personal experiences and hardships… and less about how that influences our work.
So, here we go. Three questions I wish I was asked (more often!):
1. InThe Gravity of Us,you create a world that acknowledges homophobia, but your characters never experience it on the page. Why was that important to you?
I think it’s so important to have queer stories that cover a lot of different experiences, especially when it comes to how homophobia is experienced. But while writingThe Gravity of Us, I realized how important it was for me to writethisstory inthisway. There’s something refreshing and empowering about taking a teen story that revolves around a queer romance and putting that into a world where homophobia isn’t given any page time.
Too often, I’ll read a book that features a homophobic scene that’s only been dropped there to further the cishet main character’s storyline or remind readers that queer teens are oppressed. I wanted to be clear that, in this book,queer teens are safe here. That they can read this book without having their guards up. Of course, that’s not the right fit for every story, but it was important for me, for this story.
2.How did you develop your supporting characters, like Kat and Deb, and why was it important for them to be such strong allies?
I really love when people talk about my supporting characters, because I put a lot of work into honing their character arcs. As I developed Kat, for example, I wanted to make sure she was an ally to Leon in multiple ways. She’s supportive of him falling for Cal—even running interference so they can have alone time!—but as we start the book, she’s also the only person who understands Leon’s depression. But beyond that, she has her own passions and strengths, and she gets to pursue them in a meaningful way.
Deb, Cal’s best friend from Brooklyn, is the steadfast ally any queer kid would want. That’s great for Cal, but I wanted to make sure she didn’t exist solely for his benefit. I wanted to explore best friendship, and answer the question of “When you move away from your best friend, what happens to you friendship?” The answer is… well, it’s not easy to keep up, and it’s often never the same. But in the end, I hopefully showed that an ally can both offer unfaltering support about you and your identity while also being there to tell you to shut up when you’re out of line!
3.InThe Gravity of Us, the storylines of first love and mental health overlap in a unique way—Cal, a notorious “fixer”, realizes that he can’t just fix his boyfriend Leon’s depression. What do you hope readers get out of this dynamic?
I think we all have that urge to make things better when a partner is going through a hard time, but with mental health experiences, there’s just not an easy fix. I hadn’t seen this dynamic much in YA, so I wanted to put a spotlight on it, because it’s certainly something I wish I understood as a teen. And as these conversations get more common and normalized, it can actually shift how we treat mental health from the ground up.
Early in the book, Cal flounders as he tries to make things better for Leon, but through their relationship he starts to learn how to best be there for him during the highsandlows. Cal takes cues from Leon’s sister Kat, and sometimes he just listens. (For a loudmouth like Cal, that’s a big deal!) They don’t get it right all the time, and it’s certainly not perfect when the story ends, but watching Cal gradually shift from a desperate fixer to a supportive partner is one of my favorite parts of the story.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed learning a little more about me andThe Gravity of Us.Best of luck in the coming weeks!
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