This was the most adorable. Exactly what I needed in a cozy, lazy dark days of December. I'm not usually one for a rom-com, but throw in some astrophysics, an existential plot about fitting in and some high school bully revenge fantasy and now, you're speaking my language.

This reminded me in all the best ways of [a:Lydia Netzer|4886414|Lydia Netzer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1384708162p2/4886414.jpg]'s book: a book about nerds told from the perspective of someone who clearly loves nerds, a dry sense of humor and a heavy hand of astronomy as both critical plot driver and also metaphor for trying to find one's place in the world. ( )

4.5 Stars. I'll pretty much never get sick of reading about 17 year-old geniuses, especially ones who try to save the world. The ending was a little MEH, but overall a fabulous debut!

Yuri is a 17-year-old physicist from Russia with the fate of the world in his hands. When an asteroid is found hurtling towards Earth weeks before impact, NASA is scrambling to come up with a save. Yuri has the knowledge, but not the clout or social skills to make people listen to him.

By chance, Yuri meets a "normal" teenage girl, and she teaches him that there is life outside the classroom and that if he saves the world, he'll at least have friends to celebrate with.

My Thoughts:
If you told me that I would read (and like) a book that was heavy on MATH, I would have never believed you. This thing is, it happened!! There's a lot of freaking math in this book. A lot of science and smart people stuff, and I genuinely loved those parts the best!! It's crazy how this story took hold of my attention.

Child-prodigy Yuri Strelnikov was painfully awkward and so, so, so freaking smart, but the awkward part (and some hard-core ageism by his colleagues) made people dismiss him... and that dismissal was really dangerous for Earth because UMMM??? Genius over here!!! I loved the tension of knowing the asteroid was speeding towards the place where the planning was taking place. If they didn't listen to Yuri, if they did and Yuri was wrong, If they failed in any way, they were at the point of impact!

Now, the Collums- Dovie was a fantastic addition to this book. She teaches Yuri things about the world that he never would have learned from his scientist circle. Also, Lennon, the brother, was a favorite for me. But as much as I loved the secondary story line of Yuri finding out how "normal" teens lived, I couldn't help but think "HELLO, THERE'S A FREAKING ASTEROID COMING AND YOU SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!!!". It's insanely rude of me to want someone like Yuri to not live a life and just go and save the world, but I can't stop asteroids, so I need him to go and do that.... like NOW!! This is fiction though, so once I reminded myself of that, I was okay.

The ending kind of dragged, and really that's the only part that I didn't love. I didn't feel like I needed the events that happened after the asteroid problem played out. All that stuff probably could've been solved in 5-10 pages instead of multiple chapters.

Yuri is definitely a character I won't be forgetting anytime soon. I kept reading the book without the English articles (like the, a, an, etc.) even when they were clearly present or were in dialogue spoken by English speaking characters. I wonder how long I'll be doing that for?? While writing this, I've already been imagining these sentences without them :)

OVERALL: Such a smart, thrilling, silly, cool debut. I can't imagine telling anyone that I don't think they would like it. What's not to like about a fish-out-of-water NASA world-killing asteroid social/communication/culture barriers?

My Blog:

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There's an asteroid coming and it's going to be a planet-killer if it strikes. Yuri is a 17-year-old Russian prodigy, and the only expert on antimatter in the world. He's on loan to JPL to help their scientists. In between doing the math that could save life as we know it, he meets Dovie.

It's a bit manic pixie dream girl, with free spirit Dovie teaching Yuri how to live and enjoy life. But I still enjoyed it. It was incredibly fun, despite the apocalyptic premise. I really loved meeting the characters and watching Yuri come out of his shell. I honestly had no clue how the book would end (there was a will he/won't he return to Russia question throughout, and it could have gone either way until almost the very end of the book, and I think I would have accepted either possible ending), so enjoyed the constant guessing. After awhile, I just hung on for the ride.

A quick read with some profound thoughts on what was most important in life: accomplishing something or being acknowledged for the accomplishment? ( )

I saw this on display at my local library, so I decided to read it.

STORY:

"So he had two problems. He had to save the world, and he had to save himself" (pg 50)

In Learning to Swear in America by Katie Kennedy (346 pages), Yuri Strelnikov's been brought from Russia to stop an asteroid from utterly destroying California. Along his two weeks, he has to deal with condescending NASA workers, freeing hs emotions, and a Russian professor back home trying to steal Yuri's life research on antimatter. Not to mention he finds a cute girl with brown and yellow hair, a tongue stud, and hippie parents, and NASA bureaucratically kidnapping him.

I really liked the artistic/creative way Dovie (and her family) tried to teach Yuri to deal with his emotions.

The first of half of the story was great, interesting and a bunch of anticipation. However, I didn't like the other half, and it was a struggle to finish. I started skimming through pages that I should have wanted to devour. I like a little romance in my books a lot, but I just did not care for the romantic subplot that began to take over the main plot. Like, why would someone goof off at a high school with their GF, when the fate of the world is in their hands? SN: Dovie caught feelings for Yuri way too fast.

There were a few "suicidal" jokes that albeit weren't particularly bad, didn't need to be made.

CHARACTERS:

."He wanted to cry. It was okay to cry, he told himself. It was work-related, and men could cry because of job stress. But his cheeks were dry as he fell asleep" (pg 45).

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Yuri was okay. Nothing startling interesting about him, but nothing really upsetting about him either. Maybe he was a bit hornier than expected. I like that though he was a foreigner he wasn't truly the funny foreigner trope. Of course, he didn't get every American idiom (but not in a way that undermines his intelligence), and he very much wanted to learn some English curse words.

Dovie, I liked and disliked. Sometimes, she seemed so nice and other times a little jealous/petty. She kind of hated this big-breasted girl for getting better grades than her in art class (but good art can be subjective at times, you know). Like, do you hate the unfair grade you received or are you just mad a girl chose to wear a low-cut shirt? Anyway, I enjoyed Dovie when she was a cameo, but then she started taking up too much of the story's focus.

I didn't care too much about the cast of characters.

OVERALL:

The beginning started promising, but it ended on a flat note for me. You might think differently though, so check it out for yourself! ( )

I would have never picked this book up had it not been recommended to me by a trusted friend, and what a shame that would have been because "Learning to Swear in America" was delightful! I adored Yuri, the 17 year-old physics genius from Russia. He was such a breath of fresh-air with his suits, cultural differences and social awkwardness. I just wanted to take him home - he was adorable. He wa kind and funny and so alone, and I sympathised with his frustration when the older scientists wouldn't listen to him even though he know how to stop the asteroid using antimatter.

Then there were the secondary characters. I loved Dovie and her family, especially Lennon, her wheelchair-bound brother. They welcomed Yuri into their lives with open arms. Dovie's driving had me cringing along with Yuri and Lennon, and the banter between the three of them was hilarious. And poor Myshka! I was horrified at what happened to him, but I still found myself giggling - I am a truly horrible person! I honestly didn't expect to be laughing out loud throughout this book considering NASA was trying to stop an asteroid from destroying Earth.

Katie Kennedy did a wonderful job writing a charming, entertaining novel with quirky, loveable characters. Even her Author Notes had me smiling. However, "Learning to Swear in America" also had depth and a sense of urgency which kept me turning the pages. Highly recommended. ( )