THE MOST PRECIOUS SUBSTANCE ON EARTH is a beautiful coming of age novel by an author that I can't wait to read more from in the future. We follow Nina, an Indian-Canadian teen, from the 90s when she is in high school through the 2000s, as she becomes a high school teacher herself. Each chapter is a new vignette, highlighting different shocking and life-changing aspects of Nina's life. We slowly see how these different chapters shape her as her life moves forward. It is funny, unsettling, and full of fantastic pop culture references. I connected with Nina so deeply, and truly fell in love with Bhat's writing. It was like a warm blanket, and Nina becomes a friend that you can't help by root for. Just a gorgeous, perfect book.

“Every memory you have is only a memory of the last time you remembered it. Our pasts are just broken telephone messages we transmit to ourselves.”

If you enjoyed the book Never Have I Ever with its chaotic protagonist and messy friends figuring out the world, you'll enjoy this book as a darker twist. It's raw, authentic, and GOD. At the same time, expect it to be unsettling, yet full of heart. There's a compelling main character who feels real and complex and a time jump that sees her growing up and moving on from the pain of her past (or not!) I loved it a lot and can't believe more people haven't read it.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved getting an intimate view into Nina's life, starting from high school to her 30s. It was a realistic portrayal of a character dealing with a traumatic event and how it impacts the rest of her life. Although it was dealing with a dark subject matter there was levity throughout the book and I genuinely found it funny at a time. The story is told through a series of vignettes, which felt a little choppy at times and I think I enjoyed the second half more than the first. I'm excited to read more from this author.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the digital ARC

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgallery for the digital ARC in exchange for a review!

When I saw the cover and read the summary of The Most Precious Substance on Earth, I was really excited. I love coming of age novels, especially ones that deal with the hardship of learning that adulthood kind of sucks and we're all just stumbling through it.

The novel deals with heavy topics — rape, eating disorders, drug use/over-doses, ect. Bhat handles it all with care and paired with the steam-of-conscious narrative that was built, the reader goes from having these intense moments to humor cutting the moments apart.

The characters feel real — they aren't all likable and they don't feel overly fluffed up. Which, given that The Most Previous Substance on Earth is meant to follow Nina from high school to her thirties, it makes sense and it works. It's an insight into the way that she views the world and I love that it's through her eyes, her judgements, her world-view that we get to experience these characters.

I am only giving The Most Precious Substance on Earth 3 stars. Not because it's a bad book or it's poorly written. Despite all of these qualities that I listed above as loving, I was never fully hooked. It took me much longer to finish than anticipated and it was simply because I wasn't gripped. I think it's more to do with myself than it is a critique of Bhat.

This is a wonderful coming of age journey full of relatable experiences! For fans of Pen15, Degrassi, Freaks and Geeks, and other teen dramas. While Nina experienced a terrible trauma as a preteen, she doesn't allow herself to merely become another victim. Although the event did shape her, she moves through life as normally as she can, while still hoping to truly help others. She becomes the teacher she wanted to have as a child. There were laugh out loud moments in the book, and there were awkward, cringe-worthy transactions. There were times I wanted Nina to get revenge. One thing I wished there was more of, was closure or resolutions for things Nina spoke about, such as what happened to the teacher that committed the act against her, and later the speech club she's a part of, and some of the dates she went on. I realize this was meant to be somewhat of a diary-type book, but I am just the kind of reader that appreciates more information when major events happen in the book instead of going on to the next thing. All in all, really enjoyed the book; the references to millennial pop culture were great, and I will look out to read more by this author!

This book is refreshing, deep and thought-provoking in the best of ways.

Nina’s POV and stream of consciousness throughout this book was so witty, real and raw. As an elder millennial, this book was extremely relatable and the pop culture references were amazing. I thought I was the only person on Earth who remembers Ghostwriter! But you don’t have to be a millennial to enjoy and take away some very powerful things from this story.

Nina is faced with two traumatic events in her teen years that shape the woman she becomes. Bhat does an amazing job addressing the ways in which trauma can affect you and manifest, especially in less obvious ways that could easily be attributed to something else.

Nina feels lost, inadequate and insecure. She struggles with interpersonal relationships and stays closed off. The way she experiences anxiety and analyzes others behavior towards her felt so on point. And like so many people I know, she keeps quiet and just keeps moving forward and trying to push herself to be better. Bhat handles this subject matter with such tact and really has you thinking long after you finish this book.
What is most striking about this book is that Nina could easily be any one of us. It felt so realistic and genuine. I saw parts of myself and my friends in Nina.

At the end of this book, I found myself wanting to know more. What happens to Nina? Where does life take her? She is a main character I won’t soon forget. Highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley, Grand Central Publishing and Shashi Bhat for the opportunity to read this book before its U.S. release! Also, bravo to Tree Abraham for creating this amazing cover! It is definitely one of my favorite book covers ever!! I’ll be purchasing a physical copy for sure.

This book was beautifully written. The plot meandered a bit and didn’t end up anywhere concrete, but that wasn’t really the point. Nina was funny and unsettling and snarky and sad. Her listlessness and self-destructive behavior was so frustrating and understandable and felt so real. (And the 90s pop culture references were great.)

This reminded me of how I felt while reading Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead.

I loved the specific details about high school, particularly the chapter about band. I was a band nerd myself, and the author was spot on! However, I felt this book lacked payoff. The main character never read grew or changed. She just drifted miserably through life. Perhaps that was the point though.

this book was incredible. the most precious substance on earth opens with nina in grade 9 and from the very first page i was hooked! the first chapter pulled me in and i was shocked to say the least. nina was such a strange and funny character in the way that she thought about the people around her. as we watch nina grow, her tales and tribulations grow both funnier and darker. we see her friendship with amy fall apart, her experience at university in the united states, and her first time teaching a high school class, that comes with its own crushing students and shows nina’s fears more directly. as i was reading, i noticed a comparison between a lot of nina’s students with herself and amy. many of nina’s students display the same actions as she did when she was in high school, caleb and her comparing directly (although when nina had a crush on mr. mackenzie she did not show it as aggressively as caleb did). i really loved the set up of this book and i loved nina. i loved watching her through these small glimpses of her life. my only complaint is the open ended ending and the lack of closure with all the men in her life. other than that, i highly recommend this book to literally everyone and i look forward to getting my own physical copy when this book is published.

find my goodreads review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4781325992?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

find my instagram review here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CfC9rACLXPS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I'm a bit conflicted about this book. On one hand, it's poignant and hard-hitting. On the other, it reads as stream of consciousness and often abandons story threads completely. Instead it feels like a collection of short stories following the same character. And with that in mind, it's excellently done. Nina has a hard life, often feeling lost, and I can relate to that. Many content warnings here, including rape, pedophilia, drug use, loss of a loved one, and stalking. But it's overall a quick literary fiction read that will leave you thinking.

*Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book before the US edition release!

“Perfection, he urges, in the language of snakes.”

This story makes me want to read more Canadian literature. There’s a dreaminess to the writing and the setting that reminds me of the one other Canadian book I’ve read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Writing

The way each chapter condensed itself into a thematic vignette was beautiful, and I never felt like it was going too slow. I read the whole book in three days — three BUSY days. Although the distance between Nina and what was happening around her was sometimes overwhelming, it never felt unbelievable, especially for the scenes from her childhood. She felt like an observer, not a participator, which really was the struggle for her all along. Honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted to participate in her circumstances, either. I never didn’t like her, although she did some unlikable things throughout the book.

There are one-liners that float through this story on occasion, but they aren’t overbearingly flowery. Most of the story feels honest and draws you into the action (which is strange for a story with so little action), with a few road stops for poetic evaluation.

Content

The timespan was really enjoyable to read about! The fact that technology consistently played a part in Nina’s life, and we were set in a time when that was such a volatile aspect of society, was a facet that brought us closer to that lostness featuring so heavily in the book. I was told in a creative writing class to “never write about writers”, but clearly there are exceptions to that rule. The temple scenes and tension were delivered excellently, so that even someone who’s never seen a temple in real life (me) could immerse myself in the moments we’re given. And Nina’s parents? I loved them and pitied them for not understanding the pain their daughter was experiencing.

MILDLY SPOILERY PARAGRAPH
The more serious elements of this story — rape, harassment, drug overdose, racism, discussion of suicide — never felt unduly mentioned. They’re part of Nina’s life, and as someone who’s usually squeamish about difficult topics, I never felt like I had to put the book down. Instead, the tension and fear and danger that lurked in Nina’s life after that first terrible event kept me flipping through the pages frantically to find what happened next. If anyone reading this has read the book already, I want to talk about the Caleb chapter!! I found that situation really interesting.

Overall, this was a really solid read. I’d definitely recommend it to friends who like contemporary literature and who aren’t looking for romance or a murder-y thriller, but instead the story of an ordinary girl whom the world has forced into silence.

Did not finish at 30%. This was an interesting read but I feel like it’s not my type of read so I can’t fairly evaluate it. I will definitely check out the authors other work in the future

Funny! I acted in the film Beowulf so loved that Nina reads Beowulf while flirting with a predator online- what! A book about trauma for and against women also about silence and not speaking up - really fantastic work

I really enjoyed this book. It was witty, funny and even unsettling. Nina was a wonderful character but I feel like she kept even the readers at arms length. I would have enjoyed getting to know her more, but following her as she reflected on formative life experiences growing into womanhood was a moving experience.

I read the novel as an ARC in less than two days - I had COVID and couldn't go to work, but I was drawn to reading this story over TV and streaming options for those two days. It's a really lovely coming-of-age story about a young Canadian girl (and later, a woman) from her childhood in the 90s to present day. The main character Nina and I are approximately the same age, so her story was really relatable, raw, and irreverent at times. I loved how each chapter was a vignette from the main character's life, transporting us ahead years at a time in a way that to me, left me wanting more information about the intervening years, but also being excited to join Nina on her next adventure (or mishap). I thought this vignette style and the gritty, candid, emotional descriptions of Nina's life events were reminiscent of House on Mango Street, but the authors' writing styles being so different keeps this novel from being derivative.

As a teacher, I often read new novels thinking about how students could benefit from reading the book. I relate to Nina as an elder millennial woman, but my younger students of all ages would benefit from learning this character's narrative. The way that the author portrays different men in Nina's life is very realistic and I think young men (any age men, actually) would benefit from understanding this narrative.

We follow Nina, a woman of Asian Indian descent, from a teenager to an adult and witness all the awkward in-between moments of her life and career as a teacher. I’m still unsure why there was the need to start the book out with her as a teenager, though, as it didn’t correlate to the central theme as much as it should have. I guess I was expecting it to tie together more than it did. But I did enjoy a few bits and pieces of her struggles as a teacher and finding her voice, even though it still fell flat for me in the end.

The writing was excellent, and the characters were believable in their struggles, but it was just a bit jumbled and not woven as seamlessly as it could have been.

Overall an enjoyable and quick read if you’re looking for something easy to breeze through between some of your heavier novels.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My favorite type of book takes me on a ride that I could never predict. An every day story of a life is the best way to do that, because we truly cannot know the twists and turns and choices our character will make.

And that is why this book so deeply resonated with me. We meet Nina as a young teenager doing all the things 14 year olds do — navigating friendships, school, parents, an innocent crush on a favorite teacher.

Two traumatic experiences in Nina’s teen years — one overt, one more gradual — shape her into adulthood. She becomes a teacher and literally pours her whole being into it. She avoids connection and relies upon her living, supportive parents.

We are truly along for the ride as Nina begins to explore why she is so dedicated to her teaching and why she avoids connection. It’s poignant and touching to witness Nina be sensitive and curious about herself, her south Asian heritage, and how she uses her past experiences to tentatively connect to others.

Shashi Bhat approaches this material with such a light touch that pays so much respect to how trauma can inform our lives in so many ways. That Nina doesn’t directly confront or engage in her trauma is also authentic because there is no one wrong or right way to deal with these experiences.

So in the end there is a lot about choice in this novel — what happens to you and how you choose to respond. I loved the humor and nearly every character brings relevance to Nina’s story.

I don’t mind an ambiguous ending but this ending felt too abrupt considering the momentum occurring in the final pages.

Nina is one of my favorite characters of the year. A recommended first purchase for all general fiction collections.

This was a really enjoyable novel to read. I was instantly hooked by Nina’s voice and her story. I also came of age in the nineties, and I was able to get many of the same references she mentioned. I saw a lot of myself in Nina, and I think other readers will too. There were times when I laughed along with Nina, and others where I felt visceral anger and sadness on her behalf. One incident in particular, involving her best friend’s father, caused me to shout angrily out loud.
I loved how the book explored different parts of Nina’s life, and you could see how her past trauma affected her. The chapters are not inter-connected and felt more like a short story collection, much like the previous book I read, “Fiona and Jane”. Personally I don’t have an problem reading books with this set up, but I can see how it can be a source of frustration for other readers.

The Most Precious Substance on Earth Book Review (releasing June 28, 2022)

The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat is a deeply moving, coming of age story about a young girl in high school who experiences a traumatic experience that shapes and molds her for years into adulthood.

Nina is an Indian Canadian growing up in Halifax, Canada, and she has a major crush on her high school teacher, Mr. McKenzie. In the first chapter, Nina approaches Mr. McKenzie who suspects her feelings towards him and a traumatic experience occurs. This haunts Nina and shapes her decision-making and rebel behavior in high school up until she reaches adulthood. The second half of the novel focuses on how she moves throughout the world, trying to decide what career she wants to pursue. That’s when she decides to become a teacher, and by doing so, it stirs up her past, affecting her present and future.

First Impressions

I fell in love with this book. It reads almost like a collection of short stories; except it’s told in a linear timeline about Nina’s life. However, each story focuses on a span of time, starting from the year where the traumatic event took place, up until she has to a make a choice about her future. It was interesting to see Nina grow from teenage to adulthood and watch her make decisions, knowing what she went through. I felt like I knew Nina, and that we could’ve been friends if she were real.

The Pros

There are too many pros. The language is simplistic, yet beautiful. At the end of every chapter, Bhat sums up message after message with metaphorical images that stay with you. Despite Nina being an awkward person who doesn’t express her feelings, it’s still easy for the reader to get attached to her and care for her. It’s clear to us that Nina is suffering and is trying to figure out her place in the world when everything seems so… confusing.

Nina’s parents were born in India and so they bring a lot of culture and flair to the piece, and I could envision her parents vividly. They were fun and wanted what was best for their daughter, even if they couldn’t truly see what was happening to her. Nina is a prime example of someone who is Indian-Canadian because while her mother is trying to set up dates with Indian boys for her, she’s watching shows like Save the Bell, The Bachelor, and Pretty Little Liars, wearing gothic clothes to match with her friend Amy, and obsessing over books like Beowulf.

English literature is a big part of Nina’s interests. Her fascination begins as an attempt to impress her teacher, Mr. McKenzie. However, after the incident, literature stays with her and brings her comfort. She goes to school for creative writing and even tries for an MFA but drops out due to being surrounded by people who didn’t understand her or what she was trying to convey. This is why she ends up taking an English teaching position for a high school, which unbeknownst to her, forces her to take a hard look at her past and see patters of similar behaviors in her own students.

So why did I love this book? Aside from the poetic language, modern references, Nina herself, and the instances of Indian influences mixed in, Bhat’s book is a reflective, emotional story. It pulled at my heartstrings, and it was so good I finished it in two days (it’s about 300 pages). There’s a lot to love about Nina. We want to see her succeed, to become comfortable with herself, to find confidence in the world. It’s easy to become attached to her, to want to protect her, and to support her through her journey. You can’t move your attention elsewhere, or else it feels like you’ll miss her make progress towards a better sense of self. You have to support her through the end because she matters, and her story is like so many others who never get to have their voices heard. It was an important piece, and raised awareness about adolescence and trust, growing up, and how trauma can shape our lives.

The Cons

There aren’t necessarily any cons about this piece. But there are a few instances that can make readers uncomfortable if they aren’t prepared for what they’re getting themselves into. If you are someone who needs trigger warnings before reading then please read the next paragraph, if not, skip to the end because it may contain spoilers.

*Spoiler Alert!*

The first incident happens in the first chapter: the Mr. McKenzie incident. Mr. McKenzie commits statutory rape by having sex with her in his classroom. I will add, however, that the incident is not graphic in any way. I actually didn’t realize what was happening until after the fact and I had to go back and re-read it to confirm. So, no need to worry about full-on graphic molestation scenes. The other incidents are more subtle. Once Nina becomes a teacher, a boy student ends up stalking her, and putting her in a tight spot to react because he harasses her by asking questions that are her job as a teacher to answer. However, he pushes the limits and ends up further traumatizing Nina. There are also instances of sexist rhetoric by gross men that Nina encounters, however, I think the main triggers to be aware of consist of minor and adult relationships and statutory rape.

The Rating

I loved this story so much because it’s one of those where you think about it days after finishing. Because of that, I have to give it:

4.5 out of 5 stars.

The Most Precious Substance releases June 28, 2022 and you can pre-order it through any of the participating retailers here (but we encourage you to use the shop local option )!

(This review is scheduled to post on our website on February 21st, so please check our website then to view it.)