Review: In the Orbit of You by Ashley Schumacher

Like I said in my Can't-Wait Wednesday post a couple of weeks ago, I've been a fan of Ashley Schumacher's writing since her beautiful debut novel, Amelia Unabridged. When I read the synopsis of her newest YA novel, In the Orbit of You, I was immediately intrigued.

When they were children, Sam and Nova were inseparable. As the self-appointed king and queen of a little bug hollow they named Snailtopia, the two spent all their waking hours playing together by the hole in the fence that separated their yards. Growing up with alcoholic and physically abusive parents, Sam's only bright spot was Nova. Then he was suddenly sent away to live with his aunt and uncle, but not before he got to say goodbye to Nova and make her a promise: He would come find her when they turned eighteen.

Fast forward twelve years: Seventeen-year-old Nova lives a semi-transient lifestyle, moving from city to city because of her mothers job. When Nova starts her junior year at yet another new high school, the last person she expects to run into is her former childhood friend. Sam has built the perfect life for himself in his small Texas town: The perfect family, the perfect high school football career and the perfect cheerleader girlfriend. Despite having this gnawing feeling that he's not really happy, he does not want anything to change. Then Nova blows back into his life like a whirlwind, and suddenly he has to reevaluate everything. Nova is the only person who has ever truly known him, but is getting close to her again worth possibly upending the stable life he has built for himself?

One of the things I really liked about this novel were how real the characters felt. Nova and Sam are both highly flawed characters with tons of personal issues to work through. For Sam this has has a lot to do with his traumatic childhood - he tries to go along with what everybody else wants for him, because not rocking the boat is how he survived as a young child in an abusive household. He has built up the life that he thinks he should have to please the people around him, not the life he truly wants for himself. Nova also struggles with figuring out who she really is, but for her this is largely because her mother keeps moving them around every few months. She has been to so many different schools, and tried out so many different styles, hobbies and social cliques that she is confused about her own identity. The thought of choosing a college major - choosing that one single path for her future - terrifies her. And this part of their individual characters really make sense based on the lives they have lived up until this point.

The relationship between the two of them has that magical meant-to-be feeling. You understand why these two people are so emotionally connected to one another, and you just find yourself rooting for them to work out their issues and get together. But boy do they play that push-and-pull game. I can't count all the times one of them tries to pull away from the other, only for them to immediatly go back on that. It's like they're planets constantly orbiting around eachother (which I suppose is where the title of the book comes in), or like magnets constantly being drawn together. It's raw and it's beautiful, but there's always this clock counting down to the end of their time together, as Nova is only staying at Sam's high school for two short months before her mother's job takes them away again.

The side characters are wonderful, especially Sam's girlfriend Abigail. It can not be easy for Abby to understand Sam's relationship with Nova when he basically refuses to tell his own girlfriend anything about his past, but instead of acting catty like you would expect from an YA novel, she welcomes Nova into their circle with open arms. Even when she finds out about Sam and Nova's romantic entanglement, she acts super classy about it. She is just a genuinely good person, and I think we need to see more characters like her in fiction targeted at teenagers and young adults.

I was a bit scared when I reached the end of the story, but then the epilogue came along and made my heart whole again. And while the story technically is left open-ended, it is not difficult to guess what comes next for these wonderful characters.

In the Orbit of You might not have usurped Amelia Unabridged's place as my favorite Ashley Schumacher novel, but it was a solid read that will stay with me for a long time.