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A review by foreverinastory
Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This one was something...not sure what kind of something though.
Zoey Marks is a cursed bridesmaids. Every time she's been someone's bridesmaid, they end up not going through with the wedding. After the third strike, Zoey is starting to wonder if her ambivalence towards marriage has began to rub off on her loved ones. Then her perfect boyfriend proposes and Zoey says no. The two are heartbroken and left wondering what went wrong. Months later, Hannah, Zoey's best friend, is getting married in Ireland and she's asked Zoey to be her bridesmaid. Zoey is determined to get her best friend down the aisle to prove to herself that she's not cursed and then she'll be able to accept Rylan's proposal. Nothing can go wrong, right?
This was such a strange story, but I did generally like it. A lot of my ambivalence towards this book is to do with the writing style and pacing. The first 20% we get like a crash course of Zoey and Rylan meeting, their first date and then they've been dating for a year. It was a lot to happen in the first chunk and we didn't even really experience all of it. Zoey tells us like a brief summary of her relationship. It felt so odd to have this super whiplash dating and then after that everything slows down and revolves around Hannah's wedding which is like a week long vacation to it.
Zoey has a very big hangup about marriage, but even I still struggle to understand why she has this hangup by the end. She could never really explain it to Rylan or herself. I don't truly care about marriage hangups, but it was made into such a central point of tension, that I felt like we should've gotten a clearer answer. Which also leads me to my headcanon that Zoey is aromantic. Her ambivalence towards marriage and generally romantic coded things really resonated with me and I think had Zoey heard that term it might help her understand some of her own feelings. Also when she was saying how important her friendship with Hannah was, that really got me. I need more platonic soulmates between women in my books.
Rep: Jewish aro-coded female MC, white cishet male love interest, white Irish cishet male love interest, white lesbian female side character, sapphic female side character.
CWs: Alcohol consumption, infidelity, infertility, injury/injury detail. Moderate: antisemitism.
This one was something...not sure what kind of something though.
Zoey Marks is a cursed bridesmaids. Every time she's been someone's bridesmaid, they end up not going through with the wedding. After the third strike, Zoey is starting to wonder if her ambivalence towards marriage has began to rub off on her loved ones. Then her perfect boyfriend proposes and Zoey says no. The two are heartbroken and left wondering what went wrong. Months later, Hannah, Zoey's best friend, is getting married in Ireland and she's asked Zoey to be her bridesmaid. Zoey is determined to get her best friend down the aisle to prove to herself that she's not cursed and then she'll be able to accept Rylan's proposal. Nothing can go wrong, right?
This was such a strange story, but I did generally like it. A lot of my ambivalence towards this book is to do with the writing style and pacing. The first 20% we get like a crash course of Zoey and Rylan meeting, their first date and then they've been dating for a year. It was a lot to happen in the first chunk and we didn't even really experience all of it. Zoey tells us like a brief summary of her relationship. It felt so odd to have this super whiplash dating and then after that everything slows down and revolves around Hannah's wedding which is like a week long vacation to it.
Zoey has a very big hangup about marriage, but even I still struggle to understand why she has this hangup by the end. She could never really explain it to Rylan or herself. I don't truly care about marriage hangups, but it was made into such a central point of tension, that I felt like we should've gotten a clearer answer. Which also leads me to my headcanon that Zoey is aromantic. Her ambivalence towards marriage and generally romantic coded things really resonated with me and I think had Zoey heard that term it might help her understand some of her own feelings. Also when she was saying how important her friendship with Hannah was, that really got me. I need more platonic soulmates between women in my books.
Rep: Jewish aro-coded female MC, white cishet male love interest, white Irish cishet male love interest, white lesbian female side character, sapphic female side character.
CWs: Alcohol consumption, infidelity, infertility, injury/injury detail. Moderate: antisemitism.
Graphic: Alcohol, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Antisemitism