The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle

• Release Date: August 20th 2013

• Publisher: Amulet Books (Abrams)

• Pages: 336

• Genre: Contemporary

Synopsis: For as long as she can remember, Wren Gray’s goal has been to please her parents. But as high school graduation nears, so does an uncomfortable realization: Pleasing her parents once overlapped with pleasing herself, but now . . . not so much. Wren needs to honor her own desires, but how can she if she doesn’t even know what they are?

It’s all ending for Wren Gray

Well, high school is ending anyway. Four years of straight A’s and doing whatever makes her parents happy.With graduation done Wren is preparing to leave her Atlanta suburb for volunteer work in Guatemala. All she has to do is wait out the summer.

Until she meets Charlie Parker. Suddenly Wren’s summer isn’t full of waiting but discovering the meaning of love, romance, and her own sexuality.

I really enjoyed this book in the beginning; watching how Charlie and Wren’s lives intermingled. However, as the book went on I started to get really annoyed with Wren’s character. At times she seemed really self-centered and if something upset her she would just shut down and then ignore Charlie.

Myracle uses a really interesting narrative voice with this novel. The narration is broken into Wren and Charlie’s POVs and is written in third person, which is pretty rare for a YA. I actually really adore third person, but most YA books (especially those with two narrators) stick to the first person. So,I was pleasantly surprised by this. It’s strange I couldn’t connect Myracle’s writing style in this book with her writing in her 2011 novel, Shine. I think that shows a lot of diversity in Myracle’s writing ability.

I’m sure (and I’ve seen) this book compared to Forever by Judy Blume. In a lot of ways they are similar thematically; the main story arc is two teenagers falling in love and having sex. But 37 years after Forever, sex and sexuality in YA doesn’t have the same power to hold an entire novel. This book does have it’s fair share of sex scenes that aren’t fade to black, but I’m not sure what Myracle’s real intention is in including so many of these scenes. I feel like on one hand it is about showcasing the bond of the characters and on the other hand it could be about titillating the reader.

While it didn’t blow me away, I have no doubt with a it’s modern and intimate subject matter and a big name author name this book will end up on a lost of award list. The Infinite Moment of Us is a mature summer romance about the moment in life after high school when everything feels infinite.

*Received ARC at Book Expo America

 

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