The Astonishing Maybe

Gideon just moved to Nevada, and all he wants to do is go back to New Jersey. He definitely doesn’t want to spend a whole summer with only his little sister Harper for company. However, when he sees his neighbor roller skating in her driveway with a blanket-cape around her neck, his determination to be miserable for the whole summer wavers. The neighbor, Roona, soon sneaks her way into Gideon’s life, introducing her own brand of whimsy and magic into Gideon’s more practical life. She encourages him to stretch his boundaries by taking longer bike rides and telling scary truths.  

Roona is determined to find her father. She lives alone with her mother, and all she knows is that her father saved her life and is now in the Air Force. After earning Gideon’s loyalty, she recruits him to her mission of traveling to his base near Las Vegas. When they lie to their parents and make it to the base, Roona learns that her father is in prison for setting the fire that he saved her from. With her worldview shattered, her belief in her own magic starts to fade, and it’s up to Gideon to bring it back to her.  

Gideon narrates the story, which allows his relationship with Roona to take center stage. His perspective is skeptical at first, but Roona’s quirky behavior wins him over, and he becomes a good friend who is willing to do almost anything to help Roona, even if it hurts their friendship. Roona, through Gideon’s eyes, is a fierce friend, opinionated about everything, and the first person that he can really be vulnerable with. Most importantly, she believes in a type of magic that Gideon would never have seen without her. Readers will relate to Roona and Gideon’s struggles and find themselves rooting for them. But it is their love for each other that brings heart into the story.  

The book’s frantic pace mirrors both Gideon’s anxiety and Roona’s desperation. Despite this urgency, the novel includes tender moments where Gideon and Roona share secrets with each other, gradually building trust throughout their journey. Roona’s belief in magic creates confusion for readers—partly because Gideon remains skeptical, and partly because Roona uses magical thinking to interpret her mother’s struggles, making it difficult to distinguish between literal and metaphorical elements. It remains unclear whether or not the magic is real.  

The Astonishing Maybe includes discussions of depression, suicide, overdoses, and child abuse. While difficult to read at times, these topics are essential for readers to understand as they navigate friendships and the complexities of growing up. Because the book is written from Gideon’s perspective, these topics are presented in a way that children can understand. For example, Roona’s mother’s depression is explained through Roona’s youthful perspective, focusing on her mother’s tears and the “Mean Reds,” which Roona describes as “when she just wants to be someone else. Somewhere else. But she doesn’t know why.”  

The Astonishing Maybe offers valuable lessons for young readers about loyalty and empathy in friendship. Throughout the story, Gideon faces difficult choices about how far he’s willing to go to help Roona while maintaining her trust and ensuring her safety. Although the ending feels somewhat hurried, readers will find the conclusion satisfying and will find themselves cheering for both Roona and Gideon from beginning to end. Readers will be moved by the message of doing anything to help a friend and to keep them safe.  

Sexual Content  

• After Gideon goes to the movies with Roona and her mother, he thinks that he is “caught somewhere between mildly in love with both of them and half-dead with shock at my own nerve.” 
• Gideon and Roona hold hands. Gideon thinks, “I’d never held a non-relative girl’s hand before. I’d never even thought about it. But I reached for hers, because I couldn’t stand how alone she looked.” 
• Roona hugs Gideon after her mom has to go to the hospital. Roona goes to Gideon’s house. “Dad moved out of the way for her and she came right to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.”

Violence  

• Before the book starts, Roona’s mother is depressed and tries to kill herself. Roona tells Gideon, “My mom almost died when I was in the third grade. . . She took too much medicine.” 
• When Gideon was four, his mother left him alone at a gas station. “You aren’t supposed to remember much about being four years old, but I remembered. I didn’t get lost. She forgot me. We stopped for gas halfway to Grandma Ellen’s house in Philadelphia and she let me out to stretch my legs. After she filled the tank, she got back in the car and drove away while I stood on the curb between the pumps.” Gideon’s mother eventually remembers him and returns.  
• When Roona was a baby, her house caught fire, and she was trapped. Her dad saved her. She describes, “I was bundled in [my blanket] like a burrito when our house caught fire. My dad busted in and picked me up, right out of the flames.” She was unharmed.  
• Gideon discovers that Roona’s father set the fire that almost killed her. An online article says, “Curtis Mulroney, 25, was arrested today in Las Vegas after a three-day manhunt. Mulroney is suspected of arson. Authorities suspect the Logandale plumber of starting a house fire after a drunken argument with his wife. The Mulroneys’ infant daughter was sleeping in the house. There were no injuries.” 
• Gideon tells a story about a man talking to his little sister at the park. “I saw some guy talking to her. A grown-up.” Gideon was worried something might happen to her, but the man left, and his sister was too young to realize what was going on, but Gideon thought the man was trying to kidnap or hurt her. 
• After Roona’s mother overdosed, Roona stayed with her aunt. Her aunt hit her with a stick, and Roona shows Gideon the scars. “And [Gideon] saw two raised scars, long and narrow, running across her lower back. . . She used a stick she keeps under her bed.”

Drugs and Alcohol  

• Before the story begins, Roona’s mother overdosed. This is mentioned multiple times. 

Language    

• Profanity is used rarely. Profanity includes crap, damn, and shit.  
• Roona calls Gideon a jerk once. 
• Gideon calls Harper stupid once. 

Supernatural  

• Roona believes that her mother’s emotions seep into what her mother bakes. When she’s sad, Roona says her mom’s tears “got into the pie,” which would make everyone who ate it cry.  
• Roona tells a story about a birthday party where her mother’s tears got into the cake. “So sad that she filled our house with her tears.” Everyone at the party started crying when the cake was served.  
• Gideon starts to believe that Roona and her mother actually have magic. “I didn’t think I believed in magic, until it was right in front of me, fragile as a soap bubble. Maybe. And what if it was true?” 

Spiritual Content  

• None 

by Abigail Clark