10 years later I finally read my first Shaun David Hutchinson book. And I think I'll read more, once I get this toppling pile of TBR off my desk.

I liked the concept a lot in theory, and I adored it in the last fifth or so, but I wish more had been done with it before then--perhaps in more subtle ways, because I wasn't sure if the universe was actually shrinking or if Tommy had been a figment of Ozzie's imagination to start with. I suppose a combination thereof.

There was a lot going on here and it worked really well. The sideplots all weaved quite seamlessly through and I enjoyed how each character had their own motivation.

Also, hell yes to projecting that high school love doesn't need to last!!!

Some nice quotes:
"Just . . . don't get so focused on where you're going that you forget the people you're traveling with. There's no point reaching a destination if you arrive alone" (222).
"Everyone we meet begins as a stranger, so we project onto them who we need them to be until we get to know them. He said we gave to fall in love with the idea of a person before we can fall in love with the actual person" (271). ( )

Took me like half the book to get into, but then it flowed well. Discussed it with the book club I'm part of and opinions ranged from loving it to hating it, while I'm kinda in between. I like it better if it's meant to be an unreliable narrator suffering a psychotic break, others preferred it as a sci-fi story with an actual parallel universe. I feel like the ending suffers from not really deciding which one it is, and the book as a whole suffers from lack of foreshadowing (it reads as something written during NaNoWriMo with no real outline). But I did like the world-building that came with a constantly shrinking universe, that was really cool. ( )

I love this book. The characters were realistic in their struggles and made their mistakes. The emotion was true and if created a very poignant story. It has a similar vibe as “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Sercrets of the Universe”. ( )

I cried. It's a sad story.


Ozzie's world is confusing, but it's getting clear near the end of story.


it's really really good.


I kinda like how this story ended. ( )

I really enjoyed this book. It was a really honest, and engaging portrayal of mental illness. I wish the sci-fi elements had been explored more, but overall I thought it was a really interesting read. ( )