Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is basically about two teens that are madly in love and can't be together. I think I'm just a bit too old to enjoy this. I recommend if you enjoy young adult.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

I snagged a copy of this one when it was a Read it Now on Netgalley. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I wound up enjoying this book. Early on I very nearly DNFed, the concept just wasn’t getting through to me, and I found Eva’s young siblings incredibly annoying. As the novel progresses, the depth of the two main characters and emotional connection between them was pretty amazing.

Eva is math genius. She has a bizarre condition (possibly as a result of a car accident when she was a baby) where when she touches people, she can see patterns in the form of mathematical fractals that tell her things about people. She can see feelings in the form of colourful mathematical patterns that show her emotions about a person. She can learn things about someone by a touch. Which makes her very uncomfortable about touching people. With a gift like that you never know what you’re going learn. It’s understandably quite scary. And beyond uncomfortable to have this happen every time you accidentally touch another person.

She has a best friend, Charlotte, but doesn’t really interact with other people much. She lives with her mum and dad, her dad is a Pastor for a local church, and she has four quadruplet siblings all of whom are very young, very lively (and very very annoying at least to this reader). Eva makes some money by offering to tutor kids failing in math.

One of the guys she tutors is popular sports star Josh whom her BFF Charlotte has an epic crush on. There’s a sweet little side plot about Eva fixing the two of them up. Which turns out to have a not so great impact on their friendship when the fix up is a success.

The second guy she tutors is moody but very hot artist Zenn. Zenn and Eva connect pretty well. They find themselves getting to know each other a bit more, helped along by an incident where Eva decides the church van her family drives needs repainting - Zenn is an artist. Zenn agrees to repaint the van. Zenn’s a really good artist.

As they get to know each other and Eva’s feelings deepen, at the same time she’s dealing with her friendship with Charlotte deteriorating. Now she’s dating Josh, Charlotte is instantly more popular than she’s ever been and doesn’t really seem to have much time for Eva anymore. There’s still conversation, but it’s sparse and not as frequent and they’re not hanging out or having lunch together as much as usual. Eva’s naturally disappointed but at the same time this allows her the opportunity to spend more time with Zenn.

Eva and Charlotte’s friendship is actually very well written and quite realistic, it’s not all over the top drama, there’s a certain amount of emotional turmoil, but also some really sweet bits as well.

Likewise with Eva’s growing relationship with Zenn. They take time exploring their feelings, Eva gets to know Zenn’s home situation which isn’t all that great. Parents divorced, Dad just come out of long term prison sentence, Mom is an alcoholic who goes from bad boyfriend to bad boyfriend. The mom was actually quite nice but not very bright.

Both are struggling with decisions of what to do after high school. Zenn doesn’t really see much option other than to work to support his mom who can’t really take care of herself, while Eva wants to go to college. But with four small children and herself, Eva knows money is tight, and unless she can get a scholarship or something, her MIT dreams are just that – a dream. As fun as the flirting and growing romance is with Zenn they have some serious discussions as well.

There’s a really surprising twist as well which impacts both Eva and Zenn’s parents greatly. Which also has a big consequence for Eva and Zenn as well, but they both have to decide whether they love each other enough to get past it. Eva’s touch ability works differently with Zenn as well, opening her to sensations and experiences she never thought she would have. It’s not all swoony romance, there’s some pretty serious drama.

A really excellent contemporary YA. I would definitely read another book by this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kids Can Press.

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Kids Can Press for sending me an eARC copy in exchange of my reviews. This will not affect my thoughts and opinion about the book in any way. 

For a math hater like me, I was hesitant at first to read it because it was about math and calculators. Oh boy oh boy I was wrong that I will not like it because but  I end up liking...LOVING IT and wanting for more. 

The story,  Zenn Diagram is about a math protegé named Eva who can read somebody's emotion by mere touching them or anything that they have touched or possess.

Eva in the story is the kind of girl who is aloof and not your typical type girl who loves to associate with her gang age.  I felt sad about Eva cause she can't enjoy and experience the beauty of life as she always get "fractals" when touching people. But what I love about her is how she love her family that she always help her mother in terms of taking care of the quadruplets even though they are not her biological brothers and sisters. She also sacrifice her scholarship just to help the person she love even she badly need it to help her mom and dad.

Zenn is the love interest of Eva who has beautiful eyelashes that hooked her and made her experience how to love. Zenn is someone we should looked up and be an inspiration in life. Racking leaves, working in an art shop are just the hard jobs Zenn have in the story. Instead of going to school,study and savor the privilege of a teenager , Zenn is working his ass just to provide for his and his mothers living. And that is a thing that I love and salute him for.

The writing is gorgeously made that the author hooked me in the start and end of the story. You will love how the paced of the story is developed and how the conflict in it is solved with ease. Religion is also told in the story without interfering or poking someone's belief. 

If you love a cute contemporary and a fresh new story that has mathematics in it, then, I highly recommend that you read Zenn Diagram.

My over all rating about the book is 4.50 out of 5.00. 

book blog - https://bookishcaramel.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/zenn-diagram-review/
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2107425601

This book rocked! I will definitely be adding it to my young adult class library.

I am posting a shorter, spoiler free review, however, my GoodReads and my blog will both have the complete review.
When I first got this book, I was unsure if I was going to like it or not as it is a contemporary novel. But I absolutely loved it! As a nerd, I could relate to Eva very well and I really felt for her throughout the book. Though I we don't see eye to eye on all topics appearantly... The romance was adorable, I totally ship Eva and Zenn. Overall this was a cute, romantic, short, stand alone novel that I highly recommend.  
I recieved this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honesty review.

I love this book so much i regret not reading it sooner though i have the ARC from NetGallery (Thank you so much NetGallery team, so sorry for late review).

So our heroine, Eva, a math-nerd (so she called herself) could see fractals of what people go through or feel through touching things or a person, it might happy thing but usually for people older than 12 yo it's not always happy things, some so intense it knocked her, some she can handle but she doesn't take the risk, so she doesn't touch people to avoided any fractals. She tutor math to other student, usually she touched their calculator to 'spy' which part they struggle with and then work from there, but one of her tutor, Zenn, at first meeting didn't bought his calculator so she can't get info about which part of math he struggle with but it's all good, they're tutoring session is working well and fun for both of them until Zenn forgot his jacket and in rushed Eva grab it in attempt to give it back to him only the fractals from his jacket too intense it knocked her down. Eva's curiosity and interest towards Zenn grow gradually as they spend more time together outside their tutoring session, it's all good until they discovered some buried truth.

My thoughts:
As i said before i immensely enjoy and had fun reading it, Eva's characters is fun and pretty realistic, not only Eva's but the characters in this book is pretty believable and doesn't frustrated me. I liked her writing style and also really like the plot and conversation between characters, you could see how they slowly grow through the book. Beside romance and Eva's peculiar gift this book also talked about friendship, family relationship, and life (obviously) especially forgiveness and moving forward. There's a plot twist here but for me i can put two and two together before it revealed so it doesn't shocked me.
Anyway i really love it! and i would recommended it for anyone who love'nerdy' characters or every YA books reader, really.

I don't really know how to categorise this book, magical realism maybe?
I really enjoyed this, I liked that the main character was very level headed and she felt very realistic. The psychic touch element was something I hadn't come across before and it was really interesting, you really felt the loneliness and isolation of the main character and could sympathise. The romance was a little bit insta-love but I have no problem with that personally and I liked that there was no love triangle.
I did guess the twist a little bit before halfway through the book but there was so much additional information given in the reveal that I didn't feel cheated. The twists and turns kept me entertained and I genuinely liked every single character, there was no main villain which was refreshing, in fact if I had to pick one antagonist it would probably be the main character herself, she was her own main stumbling block.
The only negatives I had that prevented a five star rating were that the protagonist could be annoyingly juvenile in parts, her lack of grief over her parents didn't feel authentic, and the origins of her 'condition' are never really explained.
That being said I finished this book feeling that the story wrapped up well but I still really wanted to read more about the characters.

"Eva Walker has literally one friend—if you don’t count her quadruplet three-year-old-siblings—and it’s not even because she’s a math nerd. No, Eva is a loner out of necessity, because everyone and everything around her is an emotional minefield. All she has to do is touch someone, or their shirt, or their cell phone, and she can read all their secrets, their insecurities, their fears."

This was an interesting book. The power that Eva has is simple yet powerful in how it affects her everyday life and has made her into a person who doesn't touch anyone and is super reserved. Then she meets Zenn, a boy she is tutoring in Math and suddenly there is someone that she wants to touch. I felt that Eva and Zenn's relationship was quite real for 18 year old's and it was very sweet. I enjoyed the twist that comes around in how they are connected as I was not expecting it at all and the emotions that came from that felt really real to me.

What I didn't enjoy was the caricature of a Christian family and daughter of a pastor as I felt that it was made way to simple and relied on stereotypes that I didn't find necessary. There was also some language used that I didn't appreciate when talking about other girls and the clothes they wore and what they did.

Overall, I felt this was a sweet book that dealt with some darker and tougher issues, but didn't feel dark.

Pros: Cute, sometimes funny, main female character into STEM subjects (more of this is needed), quick to read.

Cons: Predictable, sometimes a bit boring, more of the same.

Unfortunately I don't have loads to say about this one, it was absolutely fine but nothing special.

First of all, I feel like I need to mention that I literally forced myself to finish this book. I considered DNF-ing tens of times, especially in the beginning. I really tried to give the main character a chance to redeem herself, and while she became slightly less annoying towards the end, I still do not like her at all .

Let's start with the writing style. It certainly was not stellar, and I found it to be a bit dry, basic and just a bit cliche-ridden. However, it was readable enough, which is fine by me. The book wasn't too long either, without too many characters and and a fairly simple plot, which made it easy to go through (mind you, not including the time I spent talking myself into continuing reading).

The book is narrated from the perspective of our protagonist, Eva. She has the power to see people's history by touching them or one of their possessions. The more a person uses an object, the clearer the "fractal" she gets is. Since she can easily see and feel the deepest and darkest secrets that people have, which is understandably not pleasant at all, she is pretty isolated. However, this does not excuse how judgmental and narrow minded she is. For her, the world is basically comprised of herself and a few people like her on one side, and sluts and dumb popular people on the other. I lost count of how many times phrases like "all the other girls", "most girls", "most boys" are used. These ignorant generalizations bothered me, especially since I got a distinct slut-shaming tendency throughout the novel. A teenager can be shy and isolated without being hateful and bitter towards the "popular" kids, that's just a superficial and almost toxic attitude to convey to young readers. I also was bothered by the brief mention of a girl's date-rape and the "shame" she suffered as a cause of it, which in my opinion, was approached in a very distasteful and inappropriate way. I really hoped that this was part of some character development exercise, however I did not feel like Eva abandoned her sense of superiority and prejudices in the end.I concluded that Eva's character, voice and attitude were intended to be positive or at least acceptable, which was disappointing. The love interest, Zenn, is an okay character, sort of run-of-the mill nice guy with a sad back-story. As for the other characters, they are not very well developed or memorable (except for the fact that Eva's siblings are quadruplets).

The plot is a pretty straightforward girl meets boy, with a supernatural twist and just a tinge of "predestination". The story is centered on the two protagonists, which results in a lot of chance meetings which are almost too convenient to believe. It does have a few interesting aspects, but it is overall predictable (which is not in itself necessarily a bad thing).

I would have definitely recommended this as a light, fluffy read if it weren't for the slut-shaming and the narrow minded views of the protagonist. It's subtle, but this book is very moralistic and that's something that I definitely don't appreciate.

Slow going at the beginning of the book, but about 1/3 of the way through I got sucked in. I didn't want to stop reading. I wanted to know what happened with Eva and Zenn. But that twist? I saw it coming and predicted what it would be, but it still broke my heart a little bit. I hope we get a sequel because I'd love to read more about their story!

Rating: 4.25/5 Penguins

Quick Reasons: AHHHHH THAT PLOT TWIST!; I really, really adore the sort of "synesthesia meets visions" vibe this has going on; endearing, complex, realistic characters; I rooted for this love so hardcore; this tore up my poor penguin heart and put it back together in a totally different way

HUGE thanks to Wendy Brant, Kids Can Press, and Netgalley for sending a free egalley of this title my way in exchange for an honest review! This in no way altered my read of or opinions on this book.

AND OH MY PENGUINS, THIS BOOK! I feel like I might spend the rest of this review screaming my little penguin lungs out because holy flippers, y'all, this book ripped me into teensy tiny paper pieces and glued me back together in a totally different (and only slightly Picasso-esque) way. I was awed and inspired by the "synesthesia meets psychic visions" vibe this read had going on--it was both creatively unique and super intriguing!


---The more I touch someone, the more I can see and understand, and the more I think I can help. But that’s my mistake. I can’t help. You can’t “fix” people like you can solve a math problem.---


There are some very heavy, mature topics broached throughout this read, including things like premarital/teenage sex and learning how to forgive. I really loved that while we do see some tension between Eva and her parents, especially once the truth about who Zenn is comes to light...that tension only helps to further highlight the lessons. Yes, Eva has a few "rebellious" moments and perhaps, in a sense, acts out just a little bit against the "unjustness" of it all, but in the end, she does nothing without considering every consequence. Eva was written to be a mature, fairly level-headed individual, and I really love how much love for her characters and this story Wendy Brant shared with her readers.


---Not all fractals are so dark, so secret. Some people live happy lives without much trauma or struggle. Some people get over things quickly, or never let them sink in to begin with. The problem is, you can’t always tell which camp they are in just by looking at them. You can’t tell if their fractal will be a pink ray of sunshine or an inky mass of mountain ridges. People tend to hide all their darkest secrets, and somehow still look fine on the outside. This is why I keep my hands to myself: because you never can tell what’s beneath the surface.---


And I have to admit, Penguins, I just couldn't help myself--my poor little heart fell for Zenn from the moment he was introduced. I do wish, now, that the answer behind his "radio silence" when the rest of the world gives Eva fractals with the slightest touch had been more freely offered up. On the other hand, though...it's that mystery that I so love, especially in romances. Who needs the "why" when the "who" is so perfectly paired, anyway?! I just.... gaaaaaah, I could squee over these two for the rest of my life if I tried to!

Overall, this was a SUPER adorable, unique, and intriguing read! I really adored how much time Wendy Brant put into crafting a wholly individualized, refreshing read--and the care she put into bringing her characters so fully to life for her readers! I'd recommend this to lovers of contemporary romances with a touch of the paranormal, uniquely vibrant characters, and SO MUCH delicious backstory! Close your eyes, Penguins; this read will paint fractals across your mind.

Full disclosure, I was not the audience for this book & wasn't able to completely finish the story.

Zenn Diagram is a cute read for pre-teens. It's about forbidden love. Eva, our main character, is a math genius who can't touch anyone because she can pick up on their emotions. One touch from her, and she can feel all your hurts, joys, forbidden pleasures, anything. (Math is way more rational.) She has a sense of humor. I loved how she a) loved math b) could describe fractals so beautifully c) had such a great relationship with her family. What I didn't love: Eva spends way too long talking about how she's different from other girls/disses her friend for showing an interest in what she considered "too normal." So while I loved reading about a girl who unapologetically love math, this novel is not about womanhood/feminism/ building up other women by any means.

Zenn, our love interest, is her newest student. He's tall, dark, handsome, and an artist. Also a major cliche, but oh well. When Eva and Zenn meet, sparks fly. They have an easy banter that seems to come effortlessly. And while the relationship "grows," it's pretty close to instalove.

The novel was a bit too juvenile & 2-D for me. There was zero depth. I got about halfway through. Again, totally wasn't the right audience. It think a 10 to 14 year-old would have a blast with it. It's a light, fluffy novel about a boy and girl in love with a little bit of "other" thrown in.

Eva and Zenn meet when he goes to her for math tutoring. Eva isn't just a math tutor, she's also a wee bit psychic. When she touches other people's belongings, she learns things about them--sometimes things she would prefer not to know. She likes Zenn and can touch him, but his coat has a dark and frightful aura.

As their relationship deepens, they find that they have more in common than they ever thought. A commonality that her adoptive parents are distressed about. Read the book to learn if their romance is made or broken when all the secrets are revealed.

A fun YA read where I definitely didn't see how it was all going to unravel. Very satisfying.

First of all I would like to say thank you to Kate Patrick from Kids Can Press for sending me a copy of this book when I had trouble with my ecopy from NetGalley. I am so happy that I got to read this super awesome book! I have a blogger friend that read and loved this book and was always talking about it on her blog so I knew I needed this book in my life. It made it into her top reads for this year and it definitely makes my top 10 reads for this year for sure.
This book, the story and the characters are incredible. The twist? Wow! The love story? The BEST!!!
I absolutely LOVED this book, like OMG so good! I'll definitely read it again and again and I think that this book needs to be one of those that goes into one of the book subscription boxes (like Owlcrate or something) I think everyone should read this awesome book!
I think Eva and Zenn are going to be on my top rated couples. They were so good together and Eva is really cool and Zenn is kinda dreamy without him knowing so. I really loved their personalities and they made me laugh a lot. That is definitely something I loved about this story, I was laughing right away.
Definitely will recommend this book to all my friends and will give to my teen daughter to read, I believe it is pretty safe even if there is an adult scene. It was very well written.
Picture review to be posted on my IG: @allaboutbooks_hawaii
This book is 10 stars good! Read it!!!

Reading Zenn Diagram Adds Up To A Fun Time

Well it was a really happy accident the day I picked this up. Exceptionally so- cos this is what I like to call a *happy book*

If you’re into contemporaries then this will surely fill you with contentment… and if you’re not then *fear not* there’s more to this book than your regular teen romance. With a magical realism twist, the book gives you that something extra you don’t normally get in this genre. I would have certainly enjoyed reading about an ability like hers- the ability to read people by touch- in a regular fantasy, so it was a pleasant surprise here. Though we don’t get a “yer a wizard Harry” moment where all the uncanny elements are explained away, there were satisfactory scattered hints as to why she has this power and I wasn’t left wondering why.

Personally though, what I enjoyed most about this book was how the themes here were so much bigger than what I would expect from a modest little book. Normally the subjects of epic tales, Zenn Diagram somehow managed to explore huge ideas like sacrifice and forgiveness as a slice of everyday heroism.

This was achieved by making characters you could actually root for. These weren’t “I say I’m nice so I’m nice” sorts of characters- no!- these actually proved their goodness with their actions. And not by grand acts of heroism- just small things- the things that matter.

What was great about them was that they weren’t reduced down to their sum of parts. Sure, they have central interests, like many YA characters, but this doesn’t make them boring. They are not simply a mathlete and an artist (kudos as well for actually coming up with something more than just a jock and a geek)- there is so much more to them than that. The details are what makes them interesting- I loved, for instance, how the main character’s power played into her love of maths and his artistic eye with the recurring image of fractals. (Also thank you for teaching me about fractals- I had a fun time looking up these images)

Part of their complexity comes down to how well their relationships are drawn with their families and each other. Nothing in this book is simple- you get a chaotic snapshot of their lives in a way that makes them very real. You have depth and backstories and more going on under the surface than meets the eye.

In short, you get a lot packed into this simple equation of boy meets girl. I never, for instance, would have expected the plot to go beyond that- because it so rarely does. Yet somehow this book actually managed to simultaneously surprise me with a plot twist *and* an ending that made me go awww. You can’t really ask for more than that.

Rating: 4/5 bananas

This book was so good and I couldn't put it down. I finished reading it in less than a day!

Eva has a supernatural power - when touching people or object with her hands, she can see "fractals" and understand a person's past and feelings. That is so cool, but at first I didn't really understand what fractals were. But then I thought of the lyrics from Let It Go (I used to be a huge fan of Frozen and memorized the words to all the songs) ...

My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around.


... and I got it. It's kind of complicated though, so I'm going to include a picture of "fractal art" below for your viewing pleasure.

[image]

I think about when we met and I asked him his name and he made that Venn diagram with his hands. I probably fell in love with him right on the spot. I think about how our circles once seemed to barely overlap. Two separate lives with a tiny sliver of math tutoring in common. But now it's like my whole circle and his whole circle are the same: our past, our present and maybe even our future.


The feels. THE. FEELS. I love Eva and Zenn. THEY ARE THE PERFECT COUPLE.

Zenn (<-- can we appreciate his name for a second? ZENN. ZENNNNN. IT SOUNDS SO GOOD.) creates art. Although the church van Eva's family owns sounds like a complete disaster (poorly painted clouds, a deep bible verse on the side), I feel thankful for its existence. If it didn't have to be repainted, Eva and Zenn may never have ended up together. So thank you church van for bringing together my OTP.

Eva is a math nerd. When she makes out with Zenn and he whispers things like "sine", "cosine" and "tangent" in her ear, she finds it HOT. She also watches VeggieTales with her siblings. AWESOMENESS: 256%

My mom fills the tub and strips the girls down while I put on a VeggieTales video for Ethan and Eli. I watch with them for a bit and Larry is singing one of his silly songs about a hairbrush when Essie waddles back into the room wrapped in a towel, her pink cheeks shining.


(That is my favorite VeggieTales song ever. I still remember the lyrics.)

Oh, where is my hairbrush? Oh, where is my hairbrush? Oh, where
Oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh, where, oh
Where oh, where is my hairbrush?


Okay, so overall, this book was super awesome (wow, how many times have I used the word "awesome" in this review?) not to mention it has a super happy ending which I love. That's all folks *drops mic (less)

"Zenn Diagram" by Wendy Brant is a great nerdy, romantic, and slightly spooky read for both teens and adults who love YA books! Just like Goldilocks says, everything about this book is "just right." Readers can easily put themselves in Eva's shoes (who hasn't crushed on a cutie that you think won't like you back in a million years?) or worried about money at some point in their lives? Eva and Zenn, despite their sometimes extraordinary issues, come across as very real, ordinary teenagers just trying to do the best they can with the lives they've been given. A few plot points come across as a bit unbelievable, but fiction asks us to suspend our disbelief while we're in the book's world. I loved this book and hope you all will, too. 5/5 stars.

A contemporary romance with a bit of paranormal mixed in. I think what interested me most about this book was the fractals and Eva's genius, and of course the protagonist's name.
I found Eva very sharp, witty, and funny and her friendship with Charlotte is very sweet. The romance was fine and her love interest was sweet and funny. I don't really have anything to complain about other than the excessive language/profanity. 4 stars