The Center of the Universe

by Ria Voros

Overview

A gripping mystery about the gravitational force between mothers and daughters. Grace Carter’s mother — the celebrity news anchor GG Carter — is everything Grace is not. GG is a star, with a flawless wardrobe and a following of thousands, while Grace — an aspiring astrophysicist — is into stars of another kind. She and her mother have always been in different orbits. Then one day GG is just … gone. While the authorities unravel the mystery behind GG’s disappearance, Grace grows closer to her high school’s golden boy, Mylo, who has faced a black hole of his own. She also uncovers some secrets from her mother’s long-lost past. The more Grace learns, the more she wonders. Did she ever really know her mother? Was GG abducted … or did she leave? And if she left, why?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781525302954
Publisher:	Kids Can Press
Publication date:	04/02/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Ria Voros is the author of middle grade and young adult novels that have been recognized by the White Pine Award, the Rocky Mountain Book Award and Best Books for Kids and Teens. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and is an instructor at Camosun College. When she's not writing, teaching or eating all the delicious things, Ria can be found hiking to the tops of mountains or watching her dogs frolic at the beach. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, two children and aforementioned frolicking dogs.

Editorial Reviews

03/11/2019

After her mother, famous TV broadcaster G.G. Carter, disappears, 17-year-old Grace begins to piece together secrets of her family’s past. G.G. disappears in the middle of Grace’s little brother’s soccer game, ostensibly to take a work call, but when she doesn’t return and fails to respond to phone calls and texts, she officially becomes a missing person. The question is, was G.G. taken, or did she leave of her own accord? Grace, a budding astronomer with a keen ability to see patterns, begins piecing together clues to figure out what happened to her mother. And with the help of her best friend, her crush, and her actor grandmother, Grace realizes that not everything in her life is what she had believed it to be. Slowly teasing out the story, Canadian author Voros deftly mixes a missing persons mystery with science, complicated mother/daughter relationships, first loves, and close friendships, and keeps the narrative engaging by conveying the complex relationships Grace must navigate with her friends and family. Ages 14–up. Agent: Louise Lamont, Luigi Bonomi Assoc. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

... compelling characters, wry humor, masterful and suspenseful plotting ...—Kirkus Reviews

... a genuine pleasure.—Quill & Quire

... this is sure to be a hit among readers who devour realistic fiction and family-driven mysteries.—Booklist

Smart and intriguing, this mystery succeeds on several levels.—School Library Connection

This beautifully layered novel packs a powerful punch ...—The Globe and Mail

Voros has given her young adult readers a novel which will satisfy on many levels.—CM Magazine

From the Publisher

2019-01-16

In the wake of her TV news anchor mom's disappearance, a Canadian teen revisits their fraught relationship.

Her heart set on a career in astrophysics, Grace, 17, couldn't be more different from her mom, GG Carter, and grandma Patricia, a film and TV star. She's closer to her ecologist dad and younger brother, Charlie. Seeking clues to GG's disappearance from Charlie's soccer game, the police interview Grace's family. Grace, gifted at recognizing patterns, describes recent changes in GG but is reluctant to tell the police about the fight they had after GG took a call and missed her daughter's astrophotography presentation. GG's celebrity puts her family under the spotlight; Grace and Charlie stop attending school. The new normal includes police updates, neighbors' gifts of lasagna, and sleepless nights. Supporting Grace are her best friend, Iris, and their attractive, half-Korean/half-white classmate, Mylo McLean (Grace and her family and Iris are white). Due to events in his own life, Mylo has also experienced the stress of being in limbo, like Grace's family, and desperate for news. While the novel's first two-thirds are stellar—vivid, suspenseful, and tautly plotted—in the final third air leaks out of the narrative balloon; only then do readers feel its exceptional, 500-plus-page, length. That's not to downplay the strengths on display—compelling characters, wry humor, masterful and suspenseful plotting—rather, the contrast raises expectations that aren't entirely fulfilled.

Fans of edgy suspense won't be disappointed. (astrophysicist interview) (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews