Review: Principles of Emotion

Principles of Emotion by Sara Read
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

Suddenly we really saw each other, and it surprised us both.

Meg has lived hidden away for the last fifteen years at her grandmother's home, showing up at twenty-three when a panic attack finally chased her away from a professorship. In the beginning, genius Dr. Meg Brightwood worked to solve a centuries old mathematical proof, nicknamed “The Impossible Theorem” but the last few years have been caregiver to her grandmother. When her grandmother dies, Meg finds her safe, secure world starting to come apart. Her father, who never stopped pressuring her growing up, and uncle want her out of the house, but a will gives her two years in the home. It all becomes moot though, when Meg actually solves the proof and the boy she loved comes back into her life. 

I wasn't a scared little girl anymore. I was a scared grown woman---which is different. 

This was a contemporary fiction, lit fic, and romance story that I hope gets put on a lot of people's radar. Told all from Meg's point-of-view, I could feel her choking and helplessness during her panic attacks, they don't get magically solved at the end and still suffers from them but her character growth from the first page to the last allows her to become better equipped to handle them. Even though this was mainly Meg's story, Isaac, the troubled youth boy that used to do handy work around the grandmother's house, got a full character story. His troubled childhood of having a bi-polar mother, take her anger out on him grandmother, and older sister that tried to raise him but ran into her own problems with drugs, not so oddly gave him common ground and understanding with Meg, the come from money mathematical genius with a father who didn't let her have a childhood and jealous of the attention older sister. There were a couple flashbacks to when she was twenty-three and he nineteen, learning each other and talking to give the reader some foundation for why they're drawn to each other when they meet back up again fifteen years later but most of the meat of their togetherness is in the present, with open-door scenes. 

One thing I knew---we both needed contact, each the anchor to the other's faltering ship. 

This had a little bit of a slower start but if you're a frequent lit fic reader, it wouldn't faze you, there were a few times where the writing went to lit prose and therefore felt a bit overwritten to me but the emotions are there, making this a story that hits you. The second half didn't have the pacing issue of the first and Meg must deal with her father trying to steal her work and helping Isaac deal with a huge issue hanging over his head, all while they both try to navigate their love for each other; I'm not good enough for you, I'll ruin/be a pain in your life, etc. A cousin of Meg's and Isaac's older sister were fantastic secondary character additions, each bringing out a part of Meg and Isaac's character. There's not a lot of “math” talk, think a watered down movie Queen's Gambit but sexism, misogyny in the mathematical world, academia, is discussed and how Meg was affected by it for some of that world setting. This wasn't light or fluffy but will have your mired in the emotions, wanting Meg to stand up for herself and Isaac to allow her to fight for him.

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