Atmosphere

The book follows a female scientist who enters training to become an astronaut. Taylor Jenkins Reed clearly did a lot of research for this book, but to the point where I felt like there was too much info dumping at the beginning as she was explaining how astronaut training works, etc.

One of the main plotlines of the book is a lesbian romance between two astronauts, and them having to keep it a secret, since it was not yet accepted in the 70s and would have gotten them kicked out of NASA. If you’ve ever seen the show For All Mankind, there’s a pretty similar plotline in that one - and I feel like that did a better job of pulling it off.

I usually really like Reed’s books but this one felt a bit so-so to me! The ending and overall romance felt more cheesy than anything. Not sure what was the point of killing off all of the other astronauts, and then leaving behind Vanessa to have this unlikely survival. And the “confession” scene in the command centre where they talk in metaphors to get around the fact that they can’t reveal they are in a relationship to each other.. feels a bit like anyone would be able to pick up on what they were saying.