Goodreads Review - "Atmosphere"

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Emotional. Thoughtful. Unforgettable.

Atmosphere is a beautifully emotional and deeply engaging read that I absolutely loved. As a NASA and space enthusiast, I was instantly drawn in by how thoughtfully the author blends real history with fiction. The book stays impressively true to NASA’s historical facts, especially in its acknowledgment of Group 8 as the first class to include women, Black, and Asian astronauts. From there, it follows a fictional group of astronauts in the summer of 1980, alongside imagined missions set in December 1984. The dual timeline is handled exceptionally well, flowing smoothly and adding depth to the story.

I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between Joan’s story and Sally Ride’s, which added an extra layer of meaning for me. While I’m not usually drawn to love stories, this one felt different. It wasn’t overly romantic or heavy-handed; instead, it focused more on the powerful human connections that form under extraordinary circumstances, and that made it feel authentic and moving.

I was captivated from beginning to end, and the final section truly is an emotional roller coaster. One quote that perfectly captured the heart of the story was:
“Just the act of falling in love was to agree to a broken heart.”
There were so many other beautiful lines as well, and I found myself saving several to revisit later.

This was an easy five-star read for me—emotional, thoughtful, and unforgettable.

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"But as Joan watched the Earth through the window now, it struck her as monumentally absurd that any of this had been a race with any opponent. Whatever the stated or unstated goals of the Apollo program, the achievements of everyone in space were shared, she thought, among us all. Humans had figured out how to put a satellite up there. Humans had gone to the moon. And sure, they were all Americans in that shuttle at that very moment. But for the space shuttle program to be an American victory felt so small compared to the victory that it could be, should be. Look what we humans had done.

“Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan's experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren't. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.”

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