The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde

From our Top Reviewer, Sophie

The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything is an unusual combination of romance and maths. Although romance isn’t my thing, I really enjoyed the maths-y side of the book and sympathised with both siblings throughout, even though a lot of the time they were butting heads, which shows an impressive ability in the author to get the reader to feel the way she wants them too. While addressing complicated, current issues such as suicides, illness, mathematical sabotage and the best way to find love (which it turns out is only what the book appears to be about on the surface), hilarious moments are slipped in to keep the reader interested. At the end I found myself wanting to go back and read it again in the face of new revelations to see if I could spot clues to them that I hadn’t noticed before. However, despite my evident enjoyment of Theory, it is probably an acquired taste: for the mathematical, the romantics or ideally people in between – but even romantics would need to have a bit of a maths-y side to fully appreciate it.