Book Review: Meet Me in Outer Space by Melinda Grace

Central Auditory Processing Disorder. I learned about this disorder years ago, when my son’s friend from school had this diagnosis. He was a really cool kid and just needed a little extra help to be successful, and so when I learned about Meet Me in Outer Space by Melinda Grace (Swoon Reads, 2019), in which the main character deals with CAPD, I was interested. What would a YA book that includes this disorder be like?

Edie Kits has dealt with Central Auditory Processing Disorder her whole life. What people say isn’t always what she hears, so things can get confusing, and it absolutely impacts her learning. Nevertheless, Edie has persisted and she’s doing well in college, studying to work in the fashion industry. She’s even planning to study abroad this upcoming summer…but French 102 is proving to be a problem. Not only that, but her professor is completely unwilling to accommodate her disability.

Enter Wes Hudson, the adorable-yet-frumpily-dressed TA. After a few awkward foibles over Edie’s disability in the beginning (hey, everyone needs to learn!), he’s her biggest cheerleader, helping her run interference when necessary with the grumpy professor and becoming her French tutor. Edie’s falling for him hard, but what about Paris? She’ll be gone until next spring; she can’t let a boyfriend get in the way. Better to start pushing Hudson away now…

This was cute, but just kind of okay for me. It’s one of those books where, I felt, the problem could have been solved if the two main characters could have just sat down and talked honestly about their problems (and it’s one thing if, say, some trauma from the past makes it difficult to open up. This wasn’t the case here). If Edie had just said, “Look, a relationship with you would be great, but I’m going to be gone from June until next April. I don’t know how we would handle that; what are your feelings on long-distance relationships? It wouldn’t be forever, but it would definitely be tough,” the book would’ve been about half its actual length. I found myself getting annoyed with her and Hudson because the possibility of a long-distance relationship never seemed to occur to either of them.

Including CAPD in the book definitely added an interesting aspect to the story; Edie’s struggles and frustration with her French professor made her problems incredibly real (the professor and Edie’s jackwagon counselor really ticked me off; I’m not sure some of their actions were actually legal, and Edie definitely could have pushed harder to receive the accommodations she needed – easier said than done, I’m very aware of that. Sigh). I did go into this expecting it would be a bigger issue throughout the story, that it would affect her friendships more and she would struggle more in daily life and not just in school, but Edie seemed to have an easier time of it with friends – possibly the one-on-one or smaller groups aspect helped?

This was okay for me. Not mind-blowing, but mostly enjoyable.

Visit Melinda Grace’s website here.

Follow her on Twitter here.