Sci-Fi & Scary

It has been my experience that very few books actually live up to the praise heaped up on the back cover. I mean, even when the books are awesome, they’re rarely just what that little blurb makes them out to be. However whomever wrote the one for Katie Kennedy’s What Goes Up was dead-on. It is action-packed and it is wildly funny. In fact, it’s directly responsible for keeping my child up an extra half hour past her hoped-for bedtime because we were too busy giggling at the knock-knock jokes.

Rosa, Eddie, and the alternate are wonderful kids in What Goes Up. Smart, funny, and brave, they are too good to be true, but given the type of book this is, they’re absolutely perfect. Katie Kennedy hooked me with the humor in What Goes Up, but it was the characters who kept me paying attention. I couldn’t help but cheer them on. Even the bald pickle-snapper who plays second violin to the teens. Is it realistic? No, not really. But it’s a feel-good, laugh out loud book when you need one, and I wasn’t aware of just how badly I needed one.

Katie Kennedy’s What Goes Up proves once again that a talented writer can mix comedy and science fiction and make a book magic. I really had no clue where things were headed in this book, and had actually put off reading it for a while because I was afraid I was going to get a typical case of insta-love romance disguised as a sci-fi book. Because, y’know, it’s a young adult science fiction book. (I would like to offer my apologies for that assumption to the author right now. But really, it’s almost every other young adult sci-fi author’s fault!)

Full of action, snark, and think on your feet moments, What Goes Up is a fast paced adventure that begs to be read. From the moment Rosa’s waiting for the future to catch up to her to the gold-plated finish, What Goes Up is a book worth reading. It won’t appeal to everyone but it definitely has my seal of approval! I mean, I can’t even think of a single thing I want to criticize and how often does that happen?

Definitely on the list for Sci-Fi & Scary’s Best Books of 2017.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.