Featured Review

            Having read – and thoroughly enjoyed – two previous novels from Taylor Jenkins Reid (“Daisy Jones & The Six” and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo”), I was on the precipice of elevating the author to elite status. Putting her alongside some of my favorites – David Baldacci, Tess Gerritsen – whose books I read without first checking reviews and subject matter.

            Then I read “Atmosphere.” No elite status for Reid.

            The story opens on December 29, 1984. Joan Goodwin is an astronaut. She’s been to space aboard the shuttle Navigator just six weeks prior. This day she’s in Mission Control in Houston as CAPCOM, the person who speaks directly to the crew on the shuttle. When a fatal accident occurs during a spacewalk outside the shuttle, everything Joan has been trained for over the last four years will be put to the test.

            So far, so good. A powerful opening that immediately pulls you in.

            The narrative then backtracks seven years to when NASA began recruiting female astronaut candidates. Joan’s younger sister, Barbara, alerts her to this news. And while Joan doesn’t get selected during the first go-around, she does become a recruit one year later. It’s the beginning of fulfilling a dream she’s had since she was 12-years old.

            From there we follow Joan as she begins her training. We learn more about her, as well as her love for her niece, Frances, whom Barbara gave birth to out of wedlock about six years earlier, and her newfound relationships with the other astronaut candidates.

            All of that is interesting, especially the training the candidates are exposed to. But around midway through, the story goes a bit off the rails. The subtitle for the book is A Love Story, and it’s easy to assume that means Joan’s love for space, or her love for her niece. However, the bulk of the ‘love’ aspect centers around Joan realizing she’s attracted to women (don’t know why she didn’t realize this until at least her late 20s). In particular, astronaut candidate Vanessa. They begin a torrid relationship on the sly, because in 1980 NASA would never tolerate such immoral conduct.

            Reid then spends (in my opinion) far too much time delving into the clandestine aspects of their relationship, and way too much time where Joan preaches about space, and religion, and the universe, ad nauseum. Joan also regularly lectures Barbara on how she’s not being a good parent with Frances. (Truth: she’s not. And you will quickly learn to hate Barbara’s character.)

            The narrative eventually comes back to the present and the danger facing the shuttle and surviving astronauts. But there’s no real climax or surprise at the end. And it all seems to be pulled together quickly just to wrap up.

            Disappointing, is how I would sum up “Atmosphere.” I’ll give it three stars, but if you’ve read any of Reid’s other works, you might want to steer clear of this one.