Review: The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak by Brian Katche

The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak
It all begins when Ana Watson's little brother, Clayton, secretly ditches the quiz bowl semifinals to go to the Washingcon sci-fi convention on what should have been a normal, résumé-building school trip.

If slacker Zak Duquette hadn't talked up the geek fan fest so much, maybe Clayton wouldn't have broken nearly every school rule or jeopardized Ana’s last shot at freedom from her uptight parents.

Now, teaming up with Duquette is the only way for Ana to chase down Clayton in the sea of orcs, zombies, bikini-clad princesses, Trekkies, and Smurfs. After all, one does not simply walk into Washingcon.

But in spite of Zak's devil-may-care attitude, he has his own reasons for being as lost as Ana-and Ana may have more in common with him than she thinks. Ana and Zak certainly don’t expect the long crazy night, which begins as a nerdfighter manhunt, to transform into so much more…

I am a fandom kind of girl. I am a binge-watching, roleplay-playing, fanfiction-writing nerd. I thought that I would relate to Ana or Zak, I didn't but they were still both absolutely amazing characters. Sure,, Ana as a little uptight and super annoying at the start - I really didn't think that I would start to like her at all but she definietly grew on me. Zak's thought process was so about Ana and it was authentic (Katcher is a guy, it is so rare to find a male writer writing contemporary YA so I loved that) but I did find it difficult to connect with him at the start. That being said, both characters definitely grew on me throughot the book. There was a lot of character growth throughout the book for both of them so I really appreciated that.

Clayton was still my #1 though, he was such a cool kid. I don't think he acted thirteen, more like ten, but it was so fun how he kept avoiding Ana and Zak - little rascal. It was such a fun story and whilst not entirely realistic, with scary vikings and fires and angry fandom people and Zak ending up  with a gun pointed at him. Very mad, very unrealistic but it was so fun.

I'm not sure whether we can class the romance as insta-love because Ana hated Zak at the start, but when they got to the connvention it did develop a bit too quickly for my liking. That being said, this was just one of those easy going, fun, drama-free (mostly) books that the lack of development sort of worked with. Still, I personally would have a like the romance to blossom a little, more than explode.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Improbable Theory of Ana and Zak, it had a few weak points but it was just a really good book for escapism - I really got into the book and it ahd me smiling throughout. A great book for fans of rom-coms like The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight mixed in with the quirkiness of John Green.


Book released May 19th 2015 by Katherine Tegan Books
Book received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

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