Finding Jupiter

Jupiter Moon Ray has a wall around her heart. Her father was killed just before she was born and her mother has never recovered from his death. Jupiter is determined to have nothing to do with love, this emotion which ruins lives. And then she meets Orion, who falls in love with her on sight and begins to patiently wear down the defences she has spent all her life erecting.

From their first inauspicious meeting at a roller rink Rowe glides the narrative into the poetic. Orion’s feelings are powerful and beautifully described. Jupiter is casual and contained on the surface but she is an artist and writes found poetry and it is through these two mediums that she begins to explore the unwelcome feelings she is beginning to have for Orion.

Their slowly growing relationship is a verbal and physical dance – for each of them a series of moves forwards and back. The rhythm is subtle but ever-present, pulsing through the narrative with a lyrical flow. There are always obstacles – Jupiter’s mother’s fear that her daughter will get hurt, Orion’s father’s dogged insistence that his competitive swimming must always come first.

When Jupiter finally realises that she can no longer ignore the love she feels for Orion and summons all her courage to let him into her heart, the story takes a Romeo and Juliet twist and all seems lost. Their families are tragically linked, as Orion’s father ran into the car in which Jupiter’s pregnant mother and father were driving when her father fell asleep at the wheel. Jupiter, erroneously assuming that Orion knew of this, felt betrayed and the lovers were forced apart.

Finding Jupiter is a journey of discovery for both protagonists and a journey to forgiveness for the two families. The eventual happy ending never feels inevitable and emotional tensions are handled with impressive credibility. It has much to say about first love but never drifts into cliché – a must read.