Review: About a Girl by Sarah McCarry

Title: About a Girl
Author: Sarah McCarry
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Publish Date: July 14, 2015
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Eighteen-year-old Tally is absolutely sure of everything: her genius, the love of her adoptive family, the loyalty of her best friend, Shane, and her future career as a Nobel prize-winning astronomer. There's no room in her tidy world for heartbreak or uncertainty—or the charismatic, troubled mother who abandoned her soon after she was born. But when a sudden discovery upends her fiercely ordered world, Tally sets out on an unexpected quest to seek out the reclusive musician who may hold the key to her past—and instead finds Maddy, an enigmatic and beautiful girl who will unlock the door to her future. The deeper she falls in love with Maddy, the more Tally begins to realize that the universe is bigger—and more complicated—than she ever imagined. Can Tally face the truth about her family—and find her way home in time to save herself from its consequences?"

My Two Cents:

"About a Girl" is the story of Tally, a very smart and very independent 18-year-old who seems very happy in her New York City home. She was adopted and is very happy with her family but it is interested in her past and to see if she can find out who she really is. This book is the third book in Sarah McCarry's Metamorphoses series. Each of these books focuses on a present-day story based on mythology. You definitely don't need to read the first two books in this series in order to understand what is going on with this book. This book is based on the myth of Atalanta, a myth that I was not familiar with before reading this book. I do suggest getting familiar with the myth before you read this book in order to understand it better. Eventually there is a little more of an explanation but it doesn't come until about the last third of the book.

The story itself was a little bit hard for me to get into. Tally goes in search of her father but by the end of the book we still don't really know much about him or Tally's origins other than she was abandoned by her mother. While Tally is on the other side of the country trying to figure out who she is, she falls for Maddy, a mysterious woman who has a hidden past. Again, I wish that I had a little bit more of a background in mythology and then maybe I would've understood where the story was going out little bit more.

One thing that I really enjoyed it about this book is that Tally's voice is very original. Tally is very sure that she wants to be an astronomer and she is extremely smart. The way that the author wrote her character was wholly original and I really did like her voice. I wish that I had liked this book a little bit more. I like that the author chose to use mythology and put a present day spin on it. I will definitely try other books by this author but the story was not my favorite!