Book Review: At the Edge of the Universe by Shaun David Hutchinson

Publisher’s description

From the author of We Are the Ants and The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley comes the heartbreaking story of a boy who believes the universe is slowly shrinking as things he remembers are being erased from others’ memories.

Tommy and Ozzie have been best friends since the second grade, and boyfriends since eighth. They spent countless days dreaming of escaping their small town—and then Tommy vanished.

More accurately, he ceased to exist, erased from the minds and memories of everyone who knew him. Everyone except Ozzie.

Ozzie doesn’t know how to navigate life without Tommy, and soon he suspects that something else is going on: that the universe is shrinking.

When Ozzie is paired up with new student Calvin on a physics project, he begins to wonder if Calvin could somehow be involved. But the more time they spend together, the harder it is for him to deny the feelings developing between them, even if he still loves Tommy.

But Ozzie knows there isn’t much time left to find Tommy—that once the door closes, it can’t be opened again. And he’s determined to keep it open as long as it takes to get his boyfriend back.

Amanda’s thoughts

It’s a well-established fact that I love everything Shaun David Hutchinson writes. I make myself read through my TBR pile in order of publication date, or I’d never be able to keep any kind of handle on it, but knowing this book was sitting there for months was taunting me. I burned through this and when I was done, all I could think about was how jealous I was of all the grad students who will enjoy sitting down to write long papers on the common ideas and symbols in Hutchinson’s brilliant books.

Ozzie’s boyfriend Tommy disappeared a few months ago. He didn’t run away—he literally disappeared. No one has any memory of him. But Ozzie remembers everything. He’s determined to wait for Tommy to reappear, even if that means giving up his future to stick around in his small hometown. He’d search for him, but most of Ozzie’s theories about where Tommy went involve quantum physics, so it seems dauntingly impossible to even begin to look for him. Then there’s the whole issue of the universe shrinking. Stars, the sun, the moon—they all disappear. The land beyond Florida disappears. Eventually, everything beyond Ozzie’s small town disappears. No one but Ozzie notices. They can’t. They have no memory of there ever being anything different—no memory of stars, or other states, or space exploration. History rewrites itself to adjust for all these changes. It’s terrifying and depressing. Any chance Ozzie had a creating a life beyond his tiny town is disappearing. Imagine being a teenager whose life has shrunk down to just his high school and the people in his town. Terrifying, indeed.

Of course, life goes on, despite these outrageous changes. Despite the many changes in the universe, nothing seems to change the fact that Ozzie’s parents are getting divorced. Or that his brother, Warren, is joining the Army. While he tries to figure out what is happening, Ozzie still hangs out with Lua, his genderfluid rock-star-in-the-making best friend (who goes by whatever pronoun best fits how she is dressed for the day). He still has work at the bookstore (where he repeatedly interacts with Tommy’s mother, who of course has no memory of there ever being a Tommy). Ozzie still has school, where he gets paired up for a project with Calvin, a mysterious and depressed classmate who used to be the king of everything at school. As Ozzie gets to know Calvin, he becomes the keeper of Calvin’s dark secrets and grapples with what to do with this information.

Once again, Hutchinson has created an incredibly smart, weird, complex, and deeply affecting look at teenage lives. While they might not spend nearly as much time as Ozzie thinking about quantum physics, most teenagers will be able to relate to the fear and uncertainty that comes with facing a changing and unpredictable future, as well as the claustrophobia of feeling like you have no choices. A mind-bendingly fantastic examination of life, loss, risk, and perception.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Edelweiss

ISBN-13: 9781481449663

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication date: 02/07/2017

Filed under: Book Reviews