A review by brotestantethic
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is an interesting one! This reads as an honest and mostly realistic look into anticapitalist 20-somethings living in the big city. Main character Sneha also struggles with the divide between her cultural and sexual identifies, as well as financial pressures. I though the deep dive into her culture was by far the best and most compelling part of this book. Matthews writes a blunt and telling narrative.

What I was surprised by here was what is not present. I truly expected Sneha to have a gender revelation. During sex scenes,
she is aroused by pretending to have a penis.
As a result, Sneha’s adventure with gender feels unfinished by the end of the novel. I do appreciate that she changes her views on trans people (originally not accepting of they/them pronouns). However, her character development is further unfinished because she does not reconcile with her fatphobia and colorism.

Furthermore, I found Project Pink House/Rion a bit hard to swallow. I believe Matthews was going for a microcosm of anticapitalist, communal living. It is a utopia of “doing what you can.” However, it ends up being and reading like college houses. A bit young, a bit unrealistic, a lot of conflict. I didn’t really like how this fit into the narrative and maybe could be chalked up to the author trying to cover a bit too much ground.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings