ARC Review: The Science of Being Angry

If you’ve followed us on the blog for a while, you probably noticed that we’re fans of Nicole Melleby’s books. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we very much wanted to read her latest as soon as possible. And like always, Nicole did not disappoint! Read our review to learn why you should buy yourself a copy, if you haven’t preordered it before!

And of course, follow Nicole on twitter.

Related: How to Become a Planet review, our best books of 2021 and of 2020.

Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.

After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose?

The Science of Being Angry

Nicole Melleby

Goodreads

Rep: sapphic mc with anger management issues, sapphic li, lesbian parents
TW: blood, bullying, panic attacks
Release: 10th May 2022

Review

The Science of Being Angry could actually have a lot of different titles, the most prominent among them: The Power of Being Loved. Because while it is a book about being angry and no one could argue with that, just as much it’s a book about being loved. About how you can be loved despite and in spite of being angry all the time.

Joey is eleven, and a lot of the time her chest feels tight and she wants to just scream and scream, until it all comes down. She has so much anger in her little body, and doesn’t know how to deal with it. So like every child, she figures it’s her fault and it’s on her alone to fix it.

That’s the greatest strength of The Science of Being Angry (and Melleby’s writing in general, to be honest): giving a kid an amazing support system. Joey has two moms, two identical but totally different brothers (she’s a triplet), an older brother, and a best friend. Not all of them always understand her (even she doesn’t understand her own feelings sometimes!), but they do all try. They do things they didn’t maybe believe in at first, because it might help her; they give her second chance after second chance; they show her she’s loved. Sometimes that’s all that matters. 

There are no definitive answers in The Science of Being Angry, and the ending itself is more of a promise than anything else. But that hope is exactly what a troubled, a little bit lost kid might need. This novel tells you that no matter how much you think you messed up, there’s always a way out & people who will help you find it. 

So, have we convinced you that you want to read this book?