Book Talk - We Are All Made Of Molecules by Susin Nielsen (Unicorn)

A while ago, I picked up a book from the library called We Are All Made Of Molecules by Susin Nielsen. I'd heard really good things about it from friends and wanted to see for myself. I was not disappointed. It was amazing!!

Stewart was living the perfect life until his mom passed away. A year after, he still misses her every day, and both him and his father are still very sad. Then, Stewart's dad falls in love with a woman named Caroline and they move in together. Stewart is incredibly excited, reason being that Caroline has a daughter, and he's always wanted a sister. But Caroline's daughter Ashley couldn't be more unhappy about this new change. Stewart and Ashley are polar opposites; Stewart is a genius but not great with social skills and Ashley is the most popular girl in her grade yet bad at school. On top of that, Ashley can't deal with the reason her mom and dad broke up. Overall, they think their new family is nothing but a mess of problems.

This book deals with loss, divorce, homosexuality, and other serious topics but remains funny at the same time. It's serious and a somewhat mature read but also overall happy and fluffy and an awesome contemporary book. I breezed through this book in only one day because I was hooked from the beginning. I loved the characters, Stewart especially, although they very much enforced the stereotypical people in high school. The book did make high school sound a lot more dramatic than it is, and most of the characters were huge clichés. Ashley was the popular one who worried about fashion, boys, makeup and her social status 24/7. Stewart was the nerdy 'freakazoid' of the bunch. And though the characters were so unrealistic, they were still relatable and hilarious and I enjoyed every bit of this book.

It wasn't slow moving at all and a quick read. I loved the story and though it touches on sad things, it's a really happy book. I now really want to buy it and reread it in the future. It was so up-beat and overall funny and this is getting very repetitive. I need to stop saying how funny and happy this book is, I've said that about 5 times now.
Anyways, another thing I found pleasantly surprising was that there was basically no romance. In a contemporary book! I really liked that because it was something different and unique for once, and I loved it.
Things I didn't like. Hmm... Well, the characters didn't really act their age. At times Stewart sounded and thought like a little kid, and Ashley thought and said things like a 17 year old. Their ages weren't captured very well in their thoughts and speech.

I would give this book 4.5 stars. (I'm reserving the 5 stars for really, really extraordinary books.)

I'm really glad I read it and highly recommend it. It's definitely one of my favourites. If you want a happy book to read, I'd suggest you read this. It's really funny and will make you really happy inside and it's overall fantastic! Recommend, recommend, recommend. I hope that if you read it, you'll like it just as much as I did.
Have an amazing day!