The Calculation of You and Me is a story about realizing our own worth. About not letting someone tell us who we are and finding the people who see us for who we are. Keep reading this book review of The Calculation of You and Me for my full thoughts.
Summary
Marlowe Thompson understands a lot of things. She understands that calculus isn’t overwhelmingly beautiful to everyone, and that it typically kills the mood when you try to talk Python coding over beer pong. She understands people were surprised when golden boy Josh asked her out and she went from weird, math-obsessed Marlowe to half of their school’s couple goals. Unfortunately, Marlowe was surprised when Josh dumped her because he’d prefer a girlfriend who was more romantic. One with emotional depth.
But Marlowe has never failed anything in her life, and she isn’t about to start now. When she’s paired with Ashton Hayes for an English project, his black clothing and moody eyeliner cause a bit of a systems overload, and the dissonant sounds of his rock band make her brain itch. But when she discovers Ash’s hidden stash of love songs, Marlowe makes a desperate deal to unleash her inner romantic heroine: if Ash will agree to help her write some love letters, she’ll calculate the perfect data analytics formula to make Ash’s band go viral.
As the semester heats up with yearning love notes and late nights spent with a boy who escapes any box her brain tries to put him in, Marlowe starts to question if there’s really a set solution to love. Could a girl who has never met a problem she couldn’t solve have gotten the math so massively wrong?
Review
The Calculation of You and Me gives major Cyrano de Bergerac vibes. Except if you subbed in the person who wanted letters to be an autistic teen girl. And the guy who was writing the letters to be a teen guy who knows that the ableist and awful comment her ex boyfriend made is terrible and you make that clear from the beginning. This book is extremely precious. It’s a story about realizing that the images and perceptions of how ‘love looks’ isn’t a one fit all. That it doesn’t include marginalized identities, doesn’t include those who have a brain that works different than the majority. That we need to find people who see us for who we are apart from all their hang ups and misconceptions.
We were team Ashton from the beginning because from an Outsider perspective, we can all agree Josh is a trash ex. Like even Marlowe’s friends, but they also know that when we are convinced we want to get back, nothing they say can stop us. The Calculation of You and Me is a book where Marlowe not only learns to love romance books, but learns to see the different heroines and loves that exist. That the things we may assume or might try to copy, aren’t the only versions of love that exist. At the same time, The Calculation of You and Me is about finding people who love us, who see us, for who we are.
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Stephanie Willing does a phenomenal job at infusing The Calculation of You and Me with emotion and heart. We can really feel Marlowe’s hurt and entire emotional process of learning about herself. Find The Calculation of You and Me on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.