Published: 8th October 2019
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 352
Format: Paperback
Genre: Junior Fiction
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Hazel knows a lot about the world. That’s because when she’s not hanging with her best friend, taking care of her dog, or helping care for the goats on her family’s farm, she loves reading through dusty encyclopaedias.
But even Hazel doesn’t have answers for the questions awaiting her as she enters eighth grade. What if no one at her new school gets her, and she doesn’t make any friends? What’s going to happen to one of her moms, who’s pregnant again after having two miscarriages? Why does everything have to change when life was already perfectly fine?
As Hazel struggles to cope, she’ll come to realize that sometimes you have to look within yourself–instead of the pages of a book–to find the answer to life’s most important questions.
I’m so glad this was published because I’ve tried to find LGBTQIA books for younger teens or kids in the past and the choices are limited. Now we have Hazel who is questioning aromantic asexual, her friend who is trans, and some great two mums rep. There is a lot of other fantastic representation throughout this book with a diverse set of characters. On top of great LGBTQIA characters there’s proud Jewish and Latin American families as well as a mixed race couple in Hazel’s mums and a character in a wheelchair. All of these characters feel fully fleshed out, had their own stories to tell and their representation never felt token or shallow.
Hazel is a 13 year old who has had everything thrown at her at once: new school, surprise expecting parent, and her old friend making new friends without her. Bigelow captures the awkward time of being a new teen where you’re on the cusp of childhood and not quite adulthood, and emotions are heightened and things are changing around you faster than you can keep up. I loved Hazel’s voice and outlook on the world and I understood her frustrations at the world around her.
There are some brief Lenny’s Book of Everything vibes with the encyclopaedic knowledge, and I enjoyed seeing Hazel fight for the sake of knowledge and demand respect for the forgotten animals who need saving just as much as the cute ones. I also liked how science and knowledge were her passions and she was going to keep trying to learn even if it was hard and people didn’t always understand.
The brother/sister relationship between her and Rowan is great, the age gap is treated realistically but there is also a strong family bond between them and Rowan is a great older brother. I also loved the relationship Hazel had with her two mums, both offering something different for her and could give support in their own ways.
There are some content warnings for this book including suicidal thoughts and miscarriage, but Bigelow writes about them in ways that are brief or are discussed in important but dominating ways. The realities of Mimi’s failed pregnancies is a key point of the story and Hazel’s emotional stress and I think Bigelow has addressed it brilliantly, especially through Hazel’s eyes, to give it importance and make people understand the impact it can have on a family. The exploration of the emotional toll was fantastic, and Bigelow puts into words Hazel’s fears, passions, and hopes in heartbreaking ways and it captures beautifully the pains of being a teen. This is a truly beautiful book full of emotions and growth and no doubt will have a bit impact on people’s lives.
You can purchase Hazel’s Theory of Evolution via the following
Lost in a Good Book 