Lessons in Chemistry Review
Title - Lessons in Chemistry
Author - Bonnie Garmus
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spice 🌶 - 1
scare 😱 - 0
plot 📖 - 4
characters 🧍- 4
stars ⭐ - 4
“Men and women are both human beings. And as humans, we’re by-products of our upbringings, victims of our lackluster educational systems, and choosers of our behaviors. In short, the reduction of women to something less than men, and the elevation of men to something more than women, is not biological: it’s cultural. And it starts with two words: pink and blue. Everything skyrockets out of control from there.”
This review is probably one of the most difficult ones to write thus far. Did I enjoy this book? No, I didn't. Will I think about this book every day? Yes. Did Lessons in Chemistry teach me valuable insights and knowledge I can share with others about a time in history every human should know about? YES. Lessons in Chemistry is not a fun read, but a necessary one.
I did not learn about the feminist movement of the 1960s, instead, I learned about misogynistic practices at my private Catholic school. Even in college, the subject was only touched on in classes it could have easily been a part of the overall curriculum. You shouldn't have to take a specific class once you're already an adult just to learn about the strong women who changed the world.
This book is heavy - it is not happy-go-lucky, nor is it a walk in the park. I thought throughout the whole first quarter of the book I was going to have to DNF. The first half of Lessons in Chemistry is the depressing version of The Love Hypothesis. I said what I said. I held on throughout the rest of the book because I knew the significance of this book was something I would want to stick around for. I'm so happy I did.
“Elizabeth Zott, you’re going to change the world,”
Elizabeth Zott is a conundrum for everyone around her. Men and women alike do not understand Zott's drive for both success and scientific discovery. Regardless of seemingly endless roadblocks she perseveres knowing she has more to give to the world than the one-lane road society has carved for her. She creates a revolution of women around the United States by using a medium seemingly so innocent, a cooking show.
“Well, next week why not try the periodic table? That’s always a crowd pleaser.” “Or you could try my bowie knife,” Harriet suggested. “Let them know where you stand.”
Harriet Sloan saved this book for me. Her smartass quips were the relief I needed from the depression I kept getting hit in the face with.
Six Thirty was also one of my favorite characters in this book. Animals having inner monologues in books was something I refused to read about for the longest time. Marcellus in Remarkably Bright Creatures was my first introduction to this. Six Thirty's insights from a canine perspective lightened some of the chapters.
My favorite character arc of the whole book was Miss Frask. I despised her with my whole being for the majority of the book, but she turned around in the back half of the novel. Frask's character shows us how deep misogyny goes.
There were a few things that kept this book from being a full five stars for me.
- Within the chapters, the plot would jump around a lot. Sometimes just by a few hours, other times it would go back in time by years. When this happened it took me out of the story and forced me to try and make the connection. I think the structure of the chapters could have been better to make the flow of chapters easier to digest for the reader.
- The book starts with Elizabeth and Mad. Then, it goes back to the beginning and works its way back up to where the book originally started. I usually adore it when authors do this, but in this particular novel, it didn't work. The first half of this book is depressing, the most depressing I've read in a long time. You just want it to go back to Elizabeth and Mad but it doesn't for seemingly too long. Giving us a little taste of where the book could be to then bury the reader in death, heartbreak, and trauma only makes it worse. All of that was plenty shitty on its own, Garmus didn't have to make it worse like that. *screams into the abyss*
I was tempted to give this book 3 stars throughout the majority of it. I bumped it up to four stars purely based on the impact it has on me because that is what books are supposed to be.
“This concludes your introduction to chemistry,” she announced. “Class dismissed.”
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