Life Loss & Puffins

The two words to describe Ru Evans is freakishly smart. It’s an unwelcome label thrust on Ru. Ru taught herself Euclidean geometry at age seven, has eidetic memory & is about to enter college at thirteen. Ru boards at a house near campus 150 miles from home and meets Gabriel whose an outsider himself and both Gabriel & Ru make a sibling bond. Nothing both good and bad lasts forever though, when Ru’s mother passes away from lung cancer and Ru faces living a miserable life with her Aunt Bitsy looms over her head. Ru & Gabriel then decide to go on a road trip from California to Canada to see the Aurora Borealis & the Atlantic Puffins. Ru & Gabriel meet new people along the way and learn important lessons.

Story, Writing & Characters

I enjoy a good road trip story. I like that Ru & Gabriel’s relationship is more sibling like than it is romantic. They couldn’t do a romance since Gabriel went from seventeen to eighteen, & Ru is a minor. They understood each other even when they felt the world couldn’t. My favorite quote is from Ru’s astrophysics professor, If you want a piece of advice, always choose to live your life in a way that promotes awe.” It’s such a powerful piece of advice that we only have one life, and we aren’t coming back, so let’s live the best life we can and make life for those around us great. The writing was descriptive and easy to understand. My favorite part was when they finally saw the Aurora Borealis & just enjoyed the moment without taking pictures. I did feel as though there were a lot of things that ended too conveniently well & most of these adults didn’t seem to question what was going on, it’s as though they bought it too quickly. Other than that, there wasn’t much I disliked about it.

Overall

Overall, my first time reading anything by New York Times Bestselling Author, Catherine Ryan Hyde was excellent. If you don’t have an early copy of Life Loss & Puffins by Catherine Ryan Hyde, pre-order the book coming out on May 14^th!