hip hip hooray for teachers all over the galaxy!

I owe this book a huge thanks for getting me out of a huge reading slump. This has been on my "to be read" list for a solid chunk of time now, but the movie's impending release date bumped it up to the top of the list. I also read most of this over the span of my one-week spring break, and I really think reading most of this in four to five sittings made a difference. Sure, the story itself is already pretty fast-paced, what with the stakes concerning the survival of Earth as well as Dr. Ryland Grace's 'stuck in space' situation. One of my favorite narrative choices here was the interspersing of flashbacks and tidbits of memory. I like how they operate the way memories and long-forgotten thoughts function---sometimes they drop out of the sky from nowhere, other times they must be conjured up. To learn alongside Grace who he is, where he came from, what the crisis on Earth consisted of, and Stratt's place in all of it was great.
I really don't want this review to have any spoilers whatsoever because I knew nothing about this book besides what's on the dust jacket (and I even skimmed that). I think the main aspect of the plot that was a shock and delight for me seems to be the thing the movie trailer is monopolizing on to get viewers (now that I've seen clips of it after the fact). I think the intrigue of a guy who thinks he's all alone in space but might not be is enough mystery to be an incentive, but maybe that's just me. I also think that if I'd had Grace as my high school physics teacher, I would've grasped it all much easier (no offense to my own teacher). 
My spoiler-free review of the book's ending: Hip hip hooray for teachers all over the galaxy!



Some of my favorite quotes from ​Project Hail Mary:

"I’m a scientist! Now we’re getting somewhere! Time for me to use science. All right, genius brain: come up with something!
…
I’m hungry.
You have failed me, brain.”

"When stupid ideas work, they become genius ideas."

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