A Really Sappy and Slightly Obsessive Book Review – Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I don’t want to jump the gun by saying this in April, but I may have already read my favorite book of the year. Funny Story by Emily Henry isn’t out yet (and I didn’t snag an ARC), so this verdict could change in a few weeks when I bask in the goodness of an inevitably gushy and devastatingly gorgeous romance, but there is already a very strong, very different contender for Favorite Read of 2024.

My Storygraph review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is “BRB FORCING THIS BOOK DOWN THE THROATS OF EVERYONE I’VE EVER KNOWN,” and since I finished the book on January 12th, I’ve mostly kept to that promise. I mean it when I say that I was absolutely enthralled by this book and that I’ve been thinking about it almost every single day. I’ve already reviewed this book on my Instagram, but I canNOT stop talking about it.

Let me back up a bit. When I was in college, I saw The Martian at the drive-in with my friends (on big-little reveal, my sorority fam and I would usually hit Pluto’s (rest in PEACE) and then double feature it with snacks and blankets at the drive-in). Being that we are chatty gals, I missed quite a bit of the movie, but I was drawn in by the premise. I’ve been into space for a long time–not just because of Star Wars. It is uber cool to me! My friend Madeline leaned over to me toward the third act of the film and went, “You know, Ashley, I think this is your exact type: hot NASA botanist.” And I mean, yeah, I would absolutely be down bad for someone like that. I have qualms with Matt Damon, but he really had something special in this movie. And Sebastian Stan and Donald Glover were there occasionally, so that was a big plus!

ANYWAY, I went back and actually watched the movie after that, since I really wanted to see it. And by that point, I knew how it ended, so the stress over not knowing Mark Watney’s future was minimal. I’ll tell you that I still get anxious watching, and I do shed a tear or two, but that’s because I’m too emotional for my own good. But y’all, this movie was SO good to me. I’ve seen it so many times. I have it on my laptop and I watch frequently.

Eventually, I decided that, um, hey, I should read the book, right? Me, a bookworm, hadn’t even thought about it yet. Bonkers. So I picked it up, and readers, I loved it so much! I thought I would feel incredibly stupid reading it, being an arts girly and not having any solid grasp on STEM, but I pretty much got everything. I didn’t understand everything, by any means, but Weir wrote in such a way that I didn’t need to. I got the gist, and I knew what he was trying to say. It made me eager to read more of his work.

Well, I finally did it! One of my first books of the year was Project Hail Mary, and friends, it did not disappoint me in the slightest. Was I worried about it not living up despite reliable rave reviews? Yes. Did I fear I would again feel like an idiot for my lack of STEM-related knowledge? YES. Was I nervous that I simply wouldn’t enjoy it? Minimally.

Y’all, this book was absolutely amazing to me.

It follows a middle school science teacher named Dr. Ryland Grace who wakes up from a coma to find that he’s now an astronaut, mid-space mission, tasked with saving Earth from sun-eating space algae. Wild, right? He wakes with no memory or knowledge of who he is or how he got wherever he is, and we get to follow his thoughts as he figures it out. Little by little, we get flashback chapters to explain just how Grace got into this: how he got promoted from teacher to astronaut, what exactly he needs to accomplish in this new solar system, and how exactly he’s going to do it after finding out that his crewmates didn’t survive the journey.

Weir’s novels (well, the two that I’ve read) take place in such isolation. It’s suffocating, but not in a bad way. Sometimes when I write similar situations (but, ya know, on Earth), I find being in my character’s head stifling. So many I-statements, so many “then I did this” passages. But when Weir does it, I don’t feel overwhelmed by the close quarters. I love following his characters as they problem-solve their way out of impossible situations.

Tom Cruise should really hit him up about that IMF business.

I had no less than five existential crises while reading this book. Being in space, being trapped in space, being unable to communicate with ANYONE and knowing that you may never will again, having the weight of the entire human race depending on you, radiation poisoning!! It STRESSED me out to read this book, but I mean that in the very best way. My heart is beating faster just thinking about it.

Now, I have absolutely no idea if anything Grace does scientifically in this novel is true or would actually work in practice. I couldn’t tell you if his logic was sound. And I definitely couldn’t be as confident in the reliability of epoxy resin as he is. But, the guy knows how to DEAL. WITH. SHIT. Including, but not limited to, befriending a LITERAL ALIEN.

Now, I didn’t know about my guy Rocky before starting the book, so IDK if this is a spoiler, but I’m going to tell you about my new favorite book character of all time, and I mean, ALL TIME: Rocky the Alien. I would take a bullet for him. He means everything to me. This little spider-like, eyeless, mouthless, little guy…protect him at all costs!!!

The relationship Rocky and Grace foster is one of the coolest I’ve ever seen in a book. The way they manage to work together, to communicate, to learn each other’s entire ways of being, was incredible. I could barely fathom how it all worked, how I would figure all that out. The way Rocky’s brain works is truly brilliant to my pea brain, and I found it fascinating. I could compare it to trying to learn a language but on steroids. For me, when I’m doing my little Duolingo lessons, it is so hard for my brain to translate, to just know what I’m hearing. I have to listen (or read) a few times, then put things into english, then come up with a response, then translate that response back into the other language. And that’s just human words! Rocky’s is a whole other existence: numbers, sounds, senses, gravity, science, math, materials. It was just bonkers to try and quantify it in mere english terms.

Science-y stuff aside, the creativity required to come up with all that…I’m baffled in the best way. An amazing feat!!! I can’t imagine what it might be like in Weir’s mind while he’s plotting and writing. I hope his editor’s brain still works after going through these projects lol. I’m in awe. As someone who is so artsy-brained, to keep my attention and interest like this in a sci-fi is a huge ask. But the storytelling is so incredible, I loved every minute. Reading this made me want to ditch the entertainment industry and go back to wanting to work at NASA (like I did after reading The Martian). Actually, though, I want to pass this to our Books gal and have her pitch it to our Creative team. (It’s stuck in development at MGM, apparently, but I can dream).

This book was never boring to me. Sure, there were some slow parts–usually the flashback chapters–but those helped answer so many questions and explain aspects of the story that existed outside of Grace and Rocky’s isolated world. But the parts that were exciting were exciting. Thrilling. Stressful. Tense. Joyful. Every time I thought we’d figured out what to do or solved a potentially catastrophic problem, something else new and possibly detrimental arose, like clockwork. It never felt overdone, it never felt unrealistic (as far as the unrealistic nature of a book like this can allow, at least), and I really believed in it.

Plus, I could not have told you how it was going to end. The gist perhaps, but the details of this ending totally surprised me! And I’m absolutely obsessed with it. I can’t think of anything I would’ve loved more. I have questions, I have wonders, I have exclamations, but it was perfect. Really, the only way I could’ve allowed the narrative to find its end.

I will recommend this book to everyone, whether they’re into sci-fi or not. I think about it constantly, and I want to talk about it forever. All while I was reading it, I was talking about it with the people around me, it was downright annoying. I pestered everyone to read it before I’d even finished it. I wish I’d had a physical copy to pass around. I still might pick one up.

Really and truly one of the best books ever in my long history of Reading Great Books. I want to read it a thousand more times.

Aaaaand that’ll about do it on my Andy Weir book soapbox, thank you very much.