Review of Atmosphere

Taylor Jenkins Reid is back with another amazing book! I was a big follower of NASA and their shuttle program, and was lucky enough to see one of the last shuttle launches. It was a bucket list wish of mine, so when I heard the premise for this book, I was excited to read it. I have been to Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center, so I enjoyed being able to visualize some of the details in the book. For a space nerd, it was compelling to follow Joan, Vanessa and the other astronaut candidates in their group for the space program. Their group formed great bonds and developed strong friendships, and it was interesting to see which assignment each of them eventually received. The book has a stressful and electrifying beginning, and then circles back to how we got to those circumstances. Another engaging aspect of the book was Joan and Vanessa’s slow-burning relationship. It was so authentically described and evolved in an organic, captivating way. It was great to see Joan discover her true self and to have the strength to acknowledge it, especially during the time period of this book in the early 1980s. The story had excellent pacing and descriptive writing. I’m impressed at the amount of research that would have gone into writing this book. This is definitely another exceptional book from this author, and I’m also happy that I read this during PRIDE month.