Gravity isn't particularly well written or structured but I found the storyline to be very personally relatable. Ellie is a teenager who has grown up an Orthodox Jew and is exploring her sexuality. Ellie's feelings, particularly her guilt and confusion, are very realistic to anyone who grew up religious. This book probably wouldn't appeal to anyone who didn't grow up in a similar fashion but I truly enjoyed this book. ( )

Ellie Gold is spending the summer with her Grandmother, her Bubbie, just the two of them at the cottage she rents every year by a lake. Ellie's parents are off to Israel for the summer and her sister, Nashama is a counselor at an all girls camp. Ellie's parents are Orthodox Jews but weren't always. Her Bubbie, her mother's mother, is not really observant but Ellie promises to say her daily prayers and keep Shabbat while at the cottage.

For the first few weeks it's just the two of them but one day Ellie meets Lindsay whose mother has a house on the other side of the lake. They begin to hang out...two totally different girls, one Jewish the other not, one serious the other not. For Ellie at least, there is a physical attraction that Lindsay seems to reciprocate. However, this goes against all the Jewish laws that Ellie has been taught. Neshama has always been the rebel in the family, spurning the rituals. Ellie has always been the good girl. However the more she tries to rid her mind of Lindsay, the more she thinks about her.

Gravity deals with a serious topic among the Orthodox Jewish community. Homosexuality is a sin and many Orthodox Jews mourn anyone who spurns the teachings and becomes more secular, let alone coming out as a lesbian. And while the book does a good job of explaining the feelings of a 15 year old child torn between the girl she thinks she loves and the rules and laws that have been indoctrinated into her head, the ending may not be realistic and that's why this book gets only 3 1/2 stars. ( )

Gravity is set in the 80s in Toronto and revolves around a family of Orthodox Jews. Although the narrative is from the perspective of the younger daughter, Ellisheva Gold, who falls in love with a girl she meets while on vacation, the story is really about the entire family and their struggle with faith. Ellie's mother works to find ways to express her faith despite the restrictive confines of orthodoxy, Ellie's sister Neshama is determined to leave and never look back as soon as she finishes high school, and Ellie's father believes that if the Jews had been more observant, the Holocaust would never have happened. Against this background, Ellie fights doggedly against her attraction to Lindsay and also her desire to know more about the world and science than her religion finds strictly acceptable. When she accepts that she does prefer girls over boys, she must come to terms with what that means for her belief in God. The story resonates at the end with the balance she finds between her faith and her sexuality. ( )

Good girl Ellen Gold has been comfortable in her Orthodox Jewish life until she meets and falls for Lindsay. She consults the Torah, and anonymously writes the Rabbi's wife for advice. In order not to think about her, she memorizes the periodical table, the Latin names of sea stars, pulls out her hair, bites the inside of her cheek until it bleeds, etc.

She finally begins sneaking over to Lindsay's house after school where she guiltily indulges her desires. With her older sister's encouragement, she begins to accept herself, and also to realize that Lindsay is not the person she would risk losing her family over. The change in Ellen is a bit too facile, while her angst seems very real. ( )

Reviewed by Andrew S. Cohen for TeensReadToo.com

This book by Canadian first-time author Leanne Lieberman centers on the coming-of-age of Ellie Gold.

The story begins during the summer vacation: Ellie goes to her grandmother's cottage in the midst of immaculate natural beauty, a place that she has looked forward to returning to since her first visit. This trip ends unexpectedly, as Ellie ends up falling in love with a girl her age, realizing her homosexuality.

However, Ellie has been brought up with strict religious values and traditions, which do not accept homosexuality, and she is forced to choose between shunning her community or denying her true sexuality.

Ultimately, through the multiple conflicts illustrated between tradition and modernity, Lieberman establishes that there is a place for all types of people, including Ellie, in society and religion.

I definitely enjoyed this story. Lieberman sucessfully develops her characters, and does not shy away from the lust commonly experienced by teenagers. And, coupled with the homosexual storyline, this story provides for a very interesting read, and is friendly to those who are not familiar with Judaism, specifically Orthodoxy.

GRAVITY is a good read for any, and despite my initial questions of how Lieberman would create such a challenging story, my concerns were for naught, as the story is an excellent work. ( )