At ALA Midwinter, Abby and I were told by a reputable source that we needed to find a copy of Gae Polisner’s debut novel The Pull of Gravity. Turns out, we scored the last two review copies, and when I finally had the chance to dive in, I can say I wasn’t disappointed.

Nick’s family is in a tough position right now, as his father has decided he needs to go for a walk. This walk is a life walk of sorts, one where he hopes he’ll be able to not only find himself, but that he’ll have the added benefit of losing weight. About the time he up and leaves, Nick’s neighbor and best friend Scooter, who has suffered from a life altering disease for years, becomes sicker and sicker. Nick can’t fathom the idea of losing both his father and his best friend.

When Nick meets Jaycee, a strange girl who, too, has ties to Scooter (something Nick never knew), he learns that his best friend not only kept a secret about his friendship with this girl, but he discovers there’s another secret — a dying wish Scooter only shared with Jaycee — that involves Nick. He and Jaycee are to deliver a valuable first edition of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to Scooter’s father, a man who walked out of Scooter’s life a long time ago and from whom no one had heard from in many years. Jaycee has a plan, and Nick, knowing he wants to make the wishes of his best friend come true, follows along on a road trip that will take them to unexpected places.

Polisner’s book is a steady-paced story that pulls much of its inspiration direct from the source: Steinbeck’s classic Of Mice and Men. This is a huge strength to the book, as it’s something that readers who are familiar with the work will appreciate on many levels, but it’s not so overwhelming as to turn off readers who aren’t familiar with the story. Nick and Jaycee stand on either side of this, too, so readers will immediately relate — Nick is reading the book for the first time and comes to understand why the book and story were so important to Scooter, while Jaycee, who is familiar with Steinbeck’s book, has the opportunity to teach Nick how to understand the tough parts. This set up mirrors, of course, their grieving process over the illness of Scooter, as well as their understanding of one another’s unique relationship to Scooter.

The Pull of Gravity is a quiet book, and it wouldn’t need to be any other way. Nick is your average guy: he’s not the smartest nor the dumbest, and he does enough to get by in school socially. Even though he has a lot going on in his life, and none of it is good, he’s strong and solid, albeit quiet. When he embarks on this trip with Jaycee, he’s hesitant at first, but throughout the course of the story, he begins to embrace the fact that Jaycee is not quiet like he is. She is anything but, and she has an excellent optimistic attitude about life. She reminded me quite a bit of Amber Appleton of Sorta Like a Rockstar in this regard, and I suspect that Polisner’s book would make a fantastic readalike to Quick’s story. By the end of the story — in a bit of a twist from what I was expecting — Nick has really learned to appreciate who he is as a person, as well as learn to love Jaycee. It turns out that Scooter’s dying wish has a far greater impact than Nick believed, even if readers will understand this chapters before Nick does.

Perhaps one of the best parts of the story for me, though, is the writing. It’s quite tight, and the control of the story — which could become unwieldy easily, given the huge number of topics tackled here — is excellent. The story moves smoothly, and there weren’t loose ends at the conclusion. But more than that, despite the heart of this story being about grief and loss, it’s written with wit, thanks to Jaycee. She’s the right balance of serious and insightful, as well as humor and absurdity, to temper the tough elements with which Nick and readers grapple.

That said, I did have a few issues with the plot. Perhaps most challenging for me was how easy it was for Nick and Jaycee to slip away from home to go on a bus trip to a city hours away from home to try to locate Scooter’s father. The clues that led them to the city were thinly developed, and while believable for teens of their age, I think that given the insight we have into Nick’s mind and the understanding we have of Jaycee, neither would really be that willing to go off such loose threads. Moreover, it was strange neither Nick’s mother nor Jaycee’s parents were aware their kids up and left — it’s explained away in the story, but it wasn’t realistic enough to me as a reader. Another minor issue I had as a reader was that when Nick and Jaycee initially arrive in Albany, the pacing dragged a bit. There is an illness involved in their arrival, and for me as a reader, it was one element too many; contextually it makes sense, particularly in relation to the parallels between Polisner’s work and Steinbeck’s, but it was just a little too much going on in such a small time frame, particularly after their time on the road. It slowed too much. And finally, post-trip, I don’t know if I necessarily bought the change in Nick and Jaycee’s relationship, perhaps because I didn’t want what happened to happen. It was almost cliche, especially in the realm of contemporary YA lit as a whole.

This book reminded me quite a bit of John Green in terms of style and execution, which is both a good and a bad thing. Long-time readers know I’m not a huge Green fan because most of his plots are the same concept over and over (geeky guy meets mysterious but quirky girl who takes him on a trip that changes his life). We have that set up here, as well. While for me, this set up is a little overdone, I think that fans of Green’s books will eat this one up. Polisner, of course, does us the favor of not falling into the exact same trope as Green, by offering us a little more in terms of the meaning of this trip and the importance of the friendship of Scooter to Nick and Jaycee.

Pass Polisner’s debut The Pull of Gravity to your fans of slower paced readers, as well as fans of classic literary novels. Though I wouldn’t necessarily call this a literary piece itself, the connections it makes to Of Mice and Men will pique the interest of many classic readers, while capturing the interest of those readers who wouldn’t want to touch a classic novel if they weren’t forced to. Don’t believe that there aren’t tough issues tackled and that there aren’t very heavy moments in the story — there are. But the overall tone of the novel is hopeful and positive, so those who don’t like stories with sad endings will find this to be a satisfying read. Although not necessarily what I’d consider a “guy read,” this book certainly will appeal to both girls and guys, as Nick is a pretty believable male lead. This is the kind of book that would work well, too, for book clubs or reading groups because of its wide potential readership.