As a part of the book club at ALHS I read ‘The Law of Inertia’ by Sophie Gonzales. In the ALHS book club we all come together as a group, create a book list, and periodically meet to talk about what we read. The best part about book club is that it’s free to join! If you would like to join the book club, contact our advisor Ms.Netzer, and fill out the form on the Albert Lea Community Education website. 

‘The law of Inertia’ is a story following four young perspectives  during two different time frames in their lives. This story was originally pitched as an LGBT ‘Gone Girl’.

This story focuses on Ash, who is a young teen and a part of the foster care system. Ash’s main support system is his brother Elliot and his boyfriend James because of a complicated relationship with his foster parents. 

When Ash dies by suicide, so many questions are left unanswered. Elliot moved away right after Ash died, didn’t cry at the funeral, and was seen partying soon after his brother’s death. This leaves James heartbroken, and most of all, confused. James is determined to find out what happened on Ash’s last day on earth, and he will go to any lengths to find out where Elliot is hiding to get the truth. 

I enjoyed this book immensely because I think it really captured mental health in an accurate way. This book not only explored Ash’s past, but also expanded on how chemical and isolating mental health can be. Sometimes mental health is just how your brain makes your body feel, and in this case it made Ash’s body feel hopeless. It wasn’t that Ash had nothing to hope for, but he felt as though he didn’t. This caused him to push away a lot of the close people in his life. 

This book really made me think. One of my favorite quotes in this entire novel is “Good things can’t last by nature. If they did, they would stop being ‘good.’ It’s probably for the best though. How can you appreciate something, if you don’t face the threat of its loss?” (Gonzales, S. The Law of Inertia. Amberjack Publishing Company, 2018.). I think that this quote captures this book in a very good way and life in general in a very insightful way.  

My favorite thing about ‘The Law of Inertia’  is that this novel covers a very complicated and important topic without the book being hard to understand for younger readers. I would recommend this book to any highschool student. However, if you are looking for a more challenging read, I wouldn’t say this book fits those requirements.