I'm giving up on this. Other reviews have said this is a 500 page book that reads like a 300 page one and I agree; there's not nearly enough going on that the tale needs to be this long. There are an interminable number of scenes where Nothing Happens and the writing isn't good enough for me to waste my time. ( )

There are many books that satisfy, a few go well beyond that. This is such a book. Part coming of age, part family drama, part mystery, part psychological autopsy and a bit of love story are blended together and told from teen Grace Carter's perspective. Older of two siblings with a fascination for astrophysics, Grace has a friction-filled relationship with both her TV reporter mom and actress grandmother. When her mother takes a call at her son's soccer game and then vanishes, it sets in motion one heck of a story. It was so good I immediately bought a copy of the author's other book published back in 2013. ( )

Grace Carter's mother --- the celebrity news anchor GG Carter --- is everything Grace is not

Then one day GG is just ... gone.

Grace grows closer to her high school's golden boy, Mylo, who has faced a black hole of his own. She also uncovers some secrets from her mother's long-lost past. The more Grace learns, the more she wonders. Did she ever really know her mother? Was GG abducted ... or did she leave? And if she left, why?

Thank you Goodreads and Kids can press for the chance to read this.

This was a good book. It wasn’t really my cup of tea but still a good book. It is about a teenage girl who doesn’t feel up to the standards of being GG’s daughter. So, it's mostly about a relationship between a mother and daughter. And a young girl finding her own self-worth. ( )

This book took me a few chapters to get settled into, since the first few chapters jump around in time rather frequently and the jumps were rather hard to follow early on. After that, however, things evened out and the transitions grew smoother. Once I got settled in, I loved Grace's character voice. She's observant and thoughtful, and her interests and the way her brain works are super cool and come through clearly in the book's prose.

This book does move faster than the average contemporary, since it's blended with the action of trying to figure out what happened to GG, but there were enough slow moments to mostly balance it out for me. Though I generally prefer more laid-back contemporaries, the pacing of this book was well-suited to the story and I didn't have a problem with it.

I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book. Grace's voice was engaging, and I loved her relationships with her dad and brother (I kind of wish we'd gotten to see more of that). Her passion for astronomy is awesome, and I loved seeing her steadily pursue that throughout the book.

Iris was probably my favorite character. She's fun and loyal, as well as self-motivated and entrepreneurial. And it was awesome to see a homeschooler who was passionate about her education and also just treated as... normal. Though she might have tended toward the positive homeschool stereotype of always motivated and almost hyper-normal (homeschoolers are normally at least a little weird/counter-cultural), it was nice to not see the more negative stereotype. I'd love to see more homeschooled characters like this in fiction.

Mylo was also awesome. His conversations with Grace while she was overwhelmed were super sweet, and I loved the dynamic between the two of them.

And did I mention the dad and brother? I'm so happy with the positive family dynamics in this book, and my only disappointment is that we didn't get to see more of the sibling or father-daughter dynamics. The dad is awesome, doing his best to support his family while also struggling himself, trying to find his wife... He was just a super strong guy and awesome dad. And Charlie (the brother) was such a realistic younger brother. He was so sweet, but also had his moments of being difficult, and he would go back and forth between asking Grace to spend time with him and pretending he was annoyed to be related to her. He was great.

There was one brief, fade-to-black love scene that I thought unnecessary and forced, and I seem to recall there was mild language throughout, but otherwise I thought everything was handled well as far as content is concerned.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. ( )

Student Review by: Lindsey R. (10th grade)
Grade Range: 7th Grade and up
Literary Merit: Excellent
Characterization: Excellent
Review:
The Center of the Universe by Ria Voros is an excellent book about a girl named Grace Carter whose mother goes missing. Grace has never been close with her famous mother GG Carter; Grace loves astronomy and her mother loves being a newsperson, so they do not have very much in common. While her mother is missing, Grace learns a lot of things about her, like the fact that her mother barely finished high school. She spends a lot of time with her best friend Iris and becomes really close to a boy named Mylo.
The Center of the Universe was very suspenseful, and I really didn´t want to stop reading it once I started, though the plot did slow somewhat in the last third. The book shines a light on the importance of friendship as well as the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter. The book was not only meaningful but also fun to read because of the mystery of wondering where her mother could be. Another intriguing element of the novel was the relationship between Mylo and Grace as the author made their love story so interesting, yet not the main focus either.
Recommendation: I would recommend this book to everyone, especially those who love mysteries with a tad of romance. ( )