I’ve been waiting very impatiently for this book.  I love everything Samantha Young writes, and now I’m here to give you my thoughts on The Impossible Vastness of Us.

The Impossible Vastness of Us – Samantha Young

Publication Date: 06/28/2017

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: 5/5 Stars

I know how to watch my back. I’m the only one that ever has.

India Maxwell hasn’t just moved across the country—she’s plummeted to the bottom rung of the social ladder. It’s taken years to cover the mess of her home life with a veneer of popularity. Now she’s living in one of Boston’s wealthiest neighborhoods with her mom’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise. Thanks to her soon-to-be stepsister’s clique of friends, including Eloise’s gorgeous, arrogant boyfriend Finn, India feels like the one thing she hoped never to be seen as again: trash.

But India’s not alone in struggling to control the secrets of her past. Eloise and Finn, the school’s golden couple, aren’t all they seem to be. In fact, everyone’s life is infinitely more complex than it first appears. And as India grows closer to Finn and befriends Eloise, threatening the facades that hold them together, what’s left are truths that are brutal, beautiful, and big enough to change them forever…

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If you know me then you know I love Samantha Young. I will purchase any book that woman ever puts out because I love her stories so much. I was very excited to get my hands on her latest release, The Impossible Vastness of Us.

I was slightly apprehensive about Impossible since it’s a YA Contemporary and I don’t usually find myself drawn to them, but Sam hasn’t led me astray yet. I started the book 7 hours ago. And now I’m writing this review.

The Impossible Vastness of Us is one of those books you don’t quite realize you’ve fallen into until you look up 100 pages later and realize you’ve not been able to put it down.  I knew by page 30 that this story wasn’t going to be an emotionally easy one, and I was right.  Impossible deals with abuse, dark pasts, and secrets.  Young’s characters are complex and compelling.  I literally couldn’t stop reading.

The story follows India, who is moved from California to Boston to live with her mother’s fiancé and his daughter, Eloise.  I liked India right off the bat, despite the popular girl vibes you get. She’s not a typical trope mean girl. India is kind, compassionate, intelligent,  and guarded.  When I met Eloise I wasn’t sure how I’d like her, but I saw a lot of similarities between her and India.  Both girls struggled in vastly different ways, but had many things in common.

Things change us, things will always change us, but who you are, that thing inside you determines your choices, controls your actions, your reactions, it’s still yours.

Young always does an amazing job of creating characters that aren’t perfect, and even when they’re not you still love them. Nothing is black and white in Impossible, and I think that’s why I fell in love with the story.  It’s easy to cast judgement on someone when you don’t know their circumstances, or to let yourself fall into believing what you see, but as Impossible does a great job of highlighting, you have no idea what even your closest friend is struggling with.

Have you ever been terrified of who you are?

I absolutely loved The Impossible Vastness of Us. It was a beautiful story of finding not only your happy ending, but your right ending.  About figuring out who you are and going down that path.  My only sadness is that it’s now over.  It was a brilliant, beautiful debut into YA Contemporary fiction by Young.