Author: Sue Lange
Publisher: Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration of any kind for this review. Since this is a new novel, this review is less detailed so as not to rob the writer of their story, but even so, it will probably still be more in-depth than you'll typically find elsewhere!
This novel is a real oddity, or maybe this oddity is a real novelty, but it entertained me. Elsa Webb is a sophomore in high school where students sport sponsorship logos on their clothing and backpacks, from assorted corporations. Elsa carries no such sponsorship; she's quiet and reserved and very smart, as indeed is her best friend May. But neither of them could be remotely described as popular. Elsa doesn’t seem to know where she's going in life, and becomes completely derailed at times even from the routine life she does have, such as when the new basketball player bumps into her in the hallway, knocking her flat on her ass, and doesn’t even stop to say sorry or help her up. She falls hopelessly for him such that he figures powerfully in her fantasy life and in her plans.
She even attends a meeting of the Science Society, dragging poor May along with her in forlorn hope of seeing him there. This society is supposed to be a feather in the cap of those who want to get along successfully in this high-tech futuristic society, where the sink, closet, garbage chute, and microwave speak back to you, and most everyone has an RFID chip in their head. But although Elsa is offered membership in the society, Jason, the basketball player, was not at the meeting and she decides against joining, coming off the rails yet again, but in a different direction this time.
Elsa develops a fascination with perpetual motion after the meeting and decides to create her own club - The Perpetual Motion club - of which she and May are the only two members and in the first few months hold only one meeting. The name of the club is ironic because it's precisely at that moment that life seems to come to a screeching halt for Elsa, who can't seem to get close to anything she wants. How she deals with this and in the end triumphs, although not quite in the way she anticipated, is the subject of this novel.
The club was started almost as a knee-jerk response to her mother's nagging about the science club. Lainie Webb is another entertaining character and Elsa has a difficult but loving relationship with her. She tries to lure Jason out on a trip to a perpetual motion meeting hosted by larger than life people who really believe such a thing is possible, but she's devastated when Jason appears to agree to go, but then stands her up without a word of warning or apology.
This rejection triggers an obsession with perpetual motion, and Elsa starts missing sleep as she lies awake pondering possibilities. Her school work suffers in all classes save geometry, which is again ironic because Elsa can't seem to work out the geometry of her life! Her relationships and a piece of work, and if this novel were only about that it would have been a worthy read, but it has much more to serve up that just relationships. Elsa's thought processes are a journey in and of themselves. This novel flouts the YA tropes and runs along it's own path, not one which is beaten, but one which is triumphant. This is a warm, fascinating and engrossing novel which I could not stop reading. Until I came to my own screeching halt at the end, that is. I wanted more! Highly recommended, but only if you're tired of trope and want something new, original, and well put together.
