Review: When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love) by Ingrid Jonach

Title: When the World Was Flat (And We Were in Love)
Author: Ingrid Jonach
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
Goodreads | The Reading Room

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again.

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

Review by Nara


I feel like a lot of people who read this book will give up before it gets good. Let me explain: the first third of this book is weird. And slow. Really, really slow. There's an instalove, there's a semi love triangle, there's a weird stalking thing going on, there are unexplained happenenings, there are annoying supporting characters- basically just anything that one usually doesn't like about a book- BAM it's there. BUT (and this is a massive but) these things are all completely forgiven once you find out the background of the story, because when this one secret is revealed- wow, everything makes sense. And EVERYTHING is forgiven.

I personally didn't really like the way we were kept in the dark for pretty much the entirety of the book. I mean, in a way, the secrecy meant that the reveals were even more satisfying, but at the same time, I feel that it was slightly annoying. I think that a lot of people would have given up on the book quite early on. Before the reveals, the book almost seemed to me like a normal, rather cliched contemporary novel instead of the science fiction and geekiness that was promised. But when the secrets start creeping out- damn, it gets good. (And yep, the sci-fi aspect kicks in at this point too.)

Apart from Tom and Lillie, I don't think I liked any of the characters. (Actually even Lillie wasn't that great at times. She had this habit of thinking things in threes, and it was kind of annoying. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying. See what I mean?) Some of them were downright irritating. Seriously. One of Lillie's best friends had this HORRIFYING habit of going through books and marking grammatical errors IN RED PEN. THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE. If I had a hit list YOU WOULD BE FREAKING NUMBER ONE. HOW DARE YOU DEFACE BOOKS I AM A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER!

*ehem* let's move on. In terms of the romance- after the major instalove has been overcome, the romance is pretty cute. And actually, I don't know if I'd call it an instalove because there's a reason why it happens, and she's technically already in love with him before she sees him and GAHHH CONFUSION.

Anyway, to conclude, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll want to give up on the book early on. But stick with it- the second half makes it all worth while!

Liked it

Ratings
Overall: 7/10
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 4/5