Brief synopsis: When mathematician Isaac Severy passed away under mysterious circumstances, he leaves a cryptic note for his non-mathematician adoptive daughter/granddaughter, Hazel, (it makes more sense once you get into the plot), who has no idea how to figure it out. There are people across the globe searching for Isaac's last equation. How will Hazel solve the equation and keep it safe? And what's the big deal anyways.



I honestly picked up The Last Equation of Isaac Severy for a few reasons: (1) it was for fans of The Westing Game, which I enjoyed; (2) it was a Book of the Month selection involving a bookstore (✓ for the POPSUGAR Reading Challenge); and (3) Sophia Bush was the guest judge who picked it (hello, One Tree Hill and also she's a fabulous social justice warrior!). I was sold.

The novel follows a few different characters - Hazel, her brother Gregory, and Isaac's son Phillip. Honestly, Phillip's chapters were fairly boring for me, which I think is what kind of took away from the story for me. Hazel's chapters were my favorite, and I think I connected with her most. Honestly, she reminded me a bit of Louisa Clark.

I'm not a math person, by the way. I literally haven't taken a math class in almost 10 years and I only do basic equations on a fairly regular basis. Luckily, this book doesn't require you to have any math skills whatsoever.

I did feel like the relation to The Westing Game was a very broad one. Yes - an old guy dies and leaves a mysterious something behind (fortune vs. treasure), but that's really where it ended for me. I felt like I had a chance of solving something in that one, but not so much in Last Equation.

I definitely felt the storyline was unique and the writing was strong. There was a plot twist at the end, which was fairly easy to work out early on, so that also kind of stole away some of the appeal for me. Overall, I personally felt the story was a bit slow for my liking, but it was a good book overall. Just one that was neither really here nor there for me.