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rexreads's review
The book starts off slow, and that's fine. I can't understand that. But Aaron... oh my god. I can't. He is condescending and bitter, which is understandable given his situation, but doesn't make for a great read. If there was movement in the plot, I could have forgiven it. If I cared for the other characters, I could have forgiven it. If every conversation wasn't a different version of him saying "No stop you're swindling me" and everyone else being like "No we're literally just trying to help" then I could have forgiven it. But he's an ass to everyone, and without the context of the real reason why, it's just insufferable. Of course the bookstore was failing-- it was literally falling apart, didn't stock recent books, and was organized in a crazy way that, yeah, made sense when things were working. And I would care if I didn't dislike Aaron so much. Aaron sucked as a person but as a character he was intolerable as well. He had no redeeming qualities. Chad's storyline is rife with ableism, both in the world around him (a complete lack of accessibility in most spaces he goes to) and in his story itself (an accident turns the high school jock/jerk into a good guy? haven't we all realized how problematic that is yet?). I read spoilers about the rest of the book and thank god I skipped it-- I was right about everything I thought would happen and I'm so glad I was and listened to my instinct and stopped reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Mental illness, Sexism, Dementia, Grief, and Abandonment
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