Book Review of You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner

You're Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner has been on my TBR ever since Eric Smith recommended it on Twitter. The premise (a Deaf graffiti artist is kicked out of school for covering up a slur about her best friend with graffiti) sounded intriguing, and I eagerly awaited my turn to read it on the library hold list. With an MC, Julia, who was Deaf, Indian, and a kid with two moms, I was expecting a unique character, unlike any other I'd encountered in YA previously. I thought the descriptions of street art would be awesome, and, if any was actually included in the book, I anticipated losing many minutes of precious reading time staring at the amazing art instead. I figured the cover design I liked of Julia tagging the book's title and the author's name while standing on a milk crate in her favorite yellow Docs was only the beginning of the great art and one-of-a-kind character You're Welcome, Universe the book might have in store.

Unfortunately, on the unique character front, it didn't feel like Gardner came up with Julia's character at all. Instead, it seems like she's as much a Switched At Birth fan as I am, and she mashed Bay's street art loving character with a penchant for trouble and breaking the law with Daphne's Deaf character who has a close but contentious relationship with her mom. I realized this in the first few chapters, and it significantly took away from my enjoyment of the book. You're Welcome, Universe had a good plot, and some of the other characters were well-written, but with an MC that feels like it was ripped off from a Free Form show, it isn't half the book I thought it was going to be.

...and then, there's the street art problem. See, the main plot of the book is that Julia starts throwing up street art, which is her main passion, and someone else starts changing it and adding to it. Julia sees this as an insult, and spends the rest of the book trying to figure out who the paint-handed culprit might be and why they have it in for her. Since street art appears to be Julia's only hobby, the thing she spends all her time and money on, and what keeps getting her into trouble, one would think she's good at it because it's what she invests all of her resources into, but the art included in the book that is supposed to be Julia's is actually cringeworthy in that it is so bad. When I saw it, I had two thoughts. 1) I could probably do that, and my stick figures look diseased. 2) Whomever is tampering with her art is actually doing it a favor--they're way more talented than she is. So, it's kind of hard to sympathize with a protagonist who is laughably bad at the one thing she cares about, but seems to think she's pretty good at it.

All in all, You're Welcome, Universe was a big letdown for me. Maybe it was overhyped. Maybe I expected it to be way more amazing than it could've ever been. I don't know. But no amount of compelling side characters could distract me from the recycled Frankenstein of an MC cobbled together from two other characters from a TV show and the lousy street art she made. I really don't recommend this book.