Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Writers & Lovers

you like lyrical, punchy prose
you're ready to read quite a bit of romance, despite this book not having that tag on storygraph
you can handle grief and parent death being a major part of the story

the good

very good writing. not the best i’ve ever seen, but i enjoyed it a lot. there’s a quality to it that really makes you feel like you’re inside the main character’s headspace, and it flows off the page beautifully despite actually being quite staccato in its pace.
casey’s reflections and remembrances about her mom are the highlight of this book imo. every time she goes on a momtangent there’s a banger line or another hiding in the midst, or a thought that feels so raw you might as well be the one feeling it, even if you’ve never actually gone through what she has.
as someone who had issues with anxiety for more or less a decade, i personally loved king’s descriptions of casey’s panic attacks. that was extremely relatable on top of the already extremely relatable ruminations casey goes through. it’s clear that king either went through something similar herself or did her research very well. (disclaimer: not everyone’s experiences with anxiety — or anything — will be the same, so this might not hit the right note for others like it did for me.)
it's just generally a very comforting book for me to read because the main character's thoughts echo a lot of mine when i'm at my worst (and she's at her worst for most of the book, so). despite my lenghty "bad" section below, keep in mind that i actually enjoyed myself reading this and would recommend picking up a sample and seeing if it vibes with you before making any decisions. that's true of any book regardless of reviews, anyway! make your own decisions, kids.

the bad

the few lgbt characters are initially treated very stereotypically (harry is flamboyant and boy-obsessed and chases after straight men? snore), and there isn’t enough about them in the book to really push them out of that role. in the end caleb fares a little better than harry though, who is relegated to very good close friend and casey-supporter for the second half of the book (but at least the stereotyping was gone i guess?).
the book lacks in representation in most aspects not related to sexuality. pretty whitewashed overall as far as i could tell, though to be fair i only remember a few characters getting any physical descriptions at all.
i didn’t want casey to
end up with silas. i thought that was extremely superfluous and tacked-on just so she could be with someone at the end. but maybe that’s just because king spent half the novel developing oscar and his family just to throw that all away (which i actually support given that oscar turns out to be a liiiiitle bit of a capital c Creep). where is silas’ development?? we know so little about him it’s actually hilarious. casey gets the good kind of bees around him though, and we all know it’s all about the good kind of bees in life.
speaking of oscar’s family,
what even happened to those kids and why does casey not spare a single thought for them and their loss (and her loss) before the ending? according to casey herself, she loved those kids more than she wanted anything to do with oscar. they were the actual glue in the relationship. so where’s their goodbye? even just a letter, a little gift of some kind, any kind of spare thought toward them? instead, casey barrels through toward her happy ending without a second thought. that really struck me as unlikely for the kind of person she was. i didn't understand it.

the complicated

i wanted to like the ending because
i tend to prefer realistic-to-hopeful endings in general, but i have to say it didn’t feel fully coherent, narrative-wise. my biggest issue was casey’s mindset shift, which was so absolute in its 180 that i got whiplash. it was almost like the second she let go of oscar she also shed her skin and grew back a completely different, and much more effective type of armor. i’m not saying this doesn’t happen in real life, and as someone going through very similar things as her in my own life right now it did feel almost cathartic to read about, but that feeling doesn’t correspond to what my actual brain wanted out of the story. everything is resolved very quickly and very easily, and that brings me little actual satisfaction as a reader. where is casey’s bottomless reluctance toward everything? where is her insecurity? where is her anxiety? she went to 3 therapy sessions and every bad feeling is gone and casually replaced with courage, happiness and self-confidence? i suddenly want to find someone named oscar just so i can break up with them, too. maybe that’s what i’m missing.

Content Warnings

minbyrnes's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was very difficult for me to get through at first and I really thought I hated it. But then something happened and I realized I didn’t hate the book, I just hated the situation that Casey was in and I cared for her so I didn’t like reading about it.

I loved the whole reading experience after a certain thing happened. I almost cried.

Content Warnings

hkburke2's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Slow burn. The MC was aggravating for me, but in a way that means she felt real and like someone I should be able to reason with? Very immersive.

Content Warnings

hannakutlu's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

marypr4's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have rated a total of 4 books 5 stars in the last 2 years, but this book changed everything for me. I’ve felt that buzzing, the buzzing Casey talks about, for years and years- it’s been humming along the surface of my skin, dormant at intervals, but always there, since I first wrote- and today when I finished “Writers and Lovers,” I felt like a shaken soda. Especially reading everything after the scene where she reads the Memoir of madness and her “insides burn in terrifying recognition.” I’ve been in that place for so long. I’m so absolutely full of things I’m finally ready to say. I’m so grateful. I’ve been on the verge for so long and this did it. Sometimes, like Muriel’s itchy ankles, when I read a good book I just go quiet for days. I only speak when absolutely necessary, I stop answering my texts. My roommates actually get worried about me. But today, when I finished this book, I opened my notes app and I wrote and wrote and I could hardly stop myself to drive home when the coffee shop I was in closed. I used voice-to-text on the drive home, till my phone died, and then I practically ran inside to plug it up and immediately pulled out my laptop for the first time in ages. I can FEEL the words and they bubble in me till I fizz over. I want to express how absolutely eternally grateful I am for this book. This is the most wonderful relief.

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