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A review by maethereader
Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Oh, I struggle with how to rate & review this. I was SO enjoying this book at first. I honestly laughed out loud a few times. I'm not a huge romance person, but I really enjoyed the banter in the beginning and through the epistolary section. I enjoyed the story lines about other characters like her best friend, parents, grandma. And I enjoyed learning about audiobook narration.
But... once these two met, it all fell apart for me. I suddenly didn't understand the characters' motivations for basically the rest of the novel... On top of that, all of the smaller storylines seemed to wrap up very quickly, which I found unrealistic and unnecessary.
And I'm not sure how to feel about the inclusion of this disability trope. It feels like it was just a device used by the author for a convenient storyline, and the character's handling of it, thinking about it, processing it, as well as that of her friends and family just did not ring true to me at all (coming from someone who became disabled as a young adult). Did Whalen talk to anyone who had gone through something like this? I hope so, but honestly it doesn't seem like it. So that's really disappointing. Disabled characters only included in books when it's convenient to make a storyline out of their disability... ugh.
Listened to this on audiobook and narration was great (obviously!).
But... once these two met, it all fell apart for me. I suddenly didn't understand the characters' motivations for basically the rest of the novel... On top of that, all of the smaller storylines seemed to wrap up very quickly, which I found unrealistic and unnecessary.
And I'm not sure how to feel about the inclusion of this disability trope. It feels like it was just a device used by the author for a convenient storyline, and the character's handling of it, thinking about it, processing it, as well as that of her friends and family just did not ring true to me at all (coming from someone who became disabled as a young adult). Did Whalen talk to anyone who had gone through something like this? I hope so, but honestly it doesn't seem like it. So that's really disappointing. Disabled characters only included in books when it's convenient to make a storyline out of their disability... ugh.
Listened to this on audiobook and narration was great (obviously!).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder
Minor: Death, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent