Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest novel Atmosphere opens with a bang. It’s 1984 and astronauts Vanessa and Griff are mid-spacewalk when disaster (literally) strikes, leaving the entire crew in life-threatening danger. Back on Earth, astrophysicist Joan tries to talk Vanessa—now the only person onboard who isn’t unconscious—through how to fix the spacecraft and return home with as many survivors as possible.
Dramatic climax established, Reid circles back seven years to where this all began. Our protagonist Joan decides to quit her job as a lecturer and sign up to NASA, which has only just started recruiting women. There, she meets a group of friends who will eventually make up the space mission’s crew. As she and Vanessa gradually fall in love and build a life together, they draw ever closer to the crisis which threatens to tear them apart.
At its heart, Atmosphere is a love story between two perfectly matched characters, with minimal dramatic complication. Or, as Joan describes it: “Vanessa loved her. Would love her. Showed no signs of stopping.” This is not in itself an issue; after all, most romance novels are intended to be comforting. The biggest problem instead lies with the protagonists themselves. Joan is not only an incredible astrophysicist; she is also a virtuosic pianist and artist, naturally caring, and gets on well with everyone. During their worst arguments, Vanessa accuses her of being “a doormat to her sister” (read: too nice) and “childish”—although even that is “not your fault, because you’re inexperienced”. Meanwhile, in her own self-critical moments, Joan can’t think of any worse traits than: “I am a prude. And always early.”
Meanwhile Vanessa is equally intelligent, charismatic, and popular, but less of a square. In her past, she recalls that “I stole money out of vending machines by taking them apart. I hot-wired a car for a friend of mine. I drank too much. I slept around. […] I did too many drugs”. Fans of Reid’s previous bestsellers—none of which have been coy about sleeping around or doing drugs—might end up wishing she had written a novel about Vanessa’s backstory instead. By the end, neither character’s personality has developed beyond the starting point that Joan is lovely, and Vanessa is glamorous.
And so the most forceful presence in Atmosphere becomes space itself. The novel begins with a foreword from Reid describing her own love of the stars. “I hope, very much, that you enjoy this story,” she writes. “But I hope, even more, that Joan Goodwin can convince you to go outside tonight, after the stars have come out, and look up.” You can easily feel this sentiment shining through the novel, creating moments of real beauty and potential. Every depiction of the astronauts’ work speaks to deep research, and you never doubt any character’s all-consuming passion for the skies above them. I’m sure many readers will indeed look to the stars the night they finish the novel.
Unfortunately, very few of those readers will come to this book for charming descriptions of space alone. Reid should not, of course, feel pigeonholed into continuing with the high-octane scandals of her previous celebrity–centred novels. Nevertheless, it seems a shame she hasn’t maintained a little more of her skill for creating interestingly flawed protagonists with compellingly knotty personal lives. A book can generally get along fine whilst missing one of either an engrossing plot or a cast of complex characters; it is much harder to succeed without either. By fitting into the latter category, Atmosphere ends up somewhat lacking in, well, atmosphere.
Words by Eleanor Harvey
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