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He knows how to stop the asteroid: his research in antimatter will probably win him a Nobel prize–if there’s ever another Nobel prize awarded. Being with her, on the adventures she plans when he’s not at NASA, Yuri catches a glimpse of what it means to save the world and save a life worth living. An intelligent, endearingly naive Russian boy tries to save the world through the power of mathematics and science is just the kind of character to pick you from a dreary day/month/year. Hence, the novel was such a delight to read since Yuri’s pure innocence amongst the arrogance of adults and the face of impending doom highlighted how underrated naivety can be.

As a result, the book felt too brief, unable to properly delve into Joe’s anxiety about what life now means without the older brother he idolised all his life. It was too fast-paced and I felt like I was running to catch up with Joe’s emotions, the whole relationship with Nell and the flashbacks into Joe’s childhood and memories with Ed and his mother. Instead, I wished the book was slower, taking me deeper into Joe’s childhood with Ed’s arrest and his mother’s abandonment to then move on to take me even deeper into his determination with his brother. There were legal terms chucked here and there in the novel but I think reading more about Al’s efforts to convince the Governor of Ed’s innocence or at least another chance in court would’ve heightened the book’s emotional ups and downs.

As I still continue to read Young Adult literature, I’ve found that it’s not only strange reading about the events of those younger than you but sometimes it can be irritating because the melodrama that inevitably comes from a hormonal teenager can be tedious to read about. Although, I have found that the Young Adult genre has the most diverse audience because of the way it appeals to not only its age group but to those older and younger. This has opened up the genre to a wider range of ideas, stories and characters which is why I think I will still continue with the genre and if anything, I’ll simply just expand into a range of other genres. That would be astounding and I cannot wait for some of the great novels of this genre to reach me because despite my current annoyance for this genre, I don’t think that necessarily means I will cease reading it in the near or far future.

It was partly because of this that parts of the novel felt very slow since I was constantly reading about their cute dates and deep conversations when I was more interested in their personal problems – Emerald’s parents and Liam’s big dreams. Even just a motivational and emotional conversation between the two would’ve deepened the novel’s plot a lot and provided more dimension to a simple summer romance story. I felt the same with the relationship between Liam and his mother since there was a lot of potential that could’ve occurred in their relationship, considering his ambitions and his father’s own issues. No Filter’ definitely holds all the elements of a classic Young Adult romance with the summer setting, the relationship helping both characters deal with their personal issues and all that other lovey dovey stuff –