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A review by elysiennee
If He Had Been with Me by Laura Nowlin
2.0
Once again, I had a lot of expectations… this book just didn’t live up to them?
Everyone said that this would be heartbreakingly sad. I guess it was? But it was such a typical kind of heartbreaking. I didn’t cry a single tear. And I’m someone who cries easily because of books… I’ve cried so often because of a book but with this one, I just vaguely felt sad. The book is okay. It’s seriously just okay. It was okay to pass the time with, but there’s no real reason to read it… I honestly don’t why I was reading it.
What I liked:
I liked some of the observations made on teen culture, especially this
“With my new friends, being weird is a good thing, as long as it’s the same weird as them.”
I thought it was interesting.
I also liked her relationship with Finny… in the beginning.
This is sort of spoiler territory, so proceed with caution…
What I didn’t like:
- First of all, she spends 75% (literally) of the book pining or talking about Jamie. And maybe the last 25% is them actually getting together or something. I get it, I love reading about pining, but this is just a bit too much.
- She gets cheated on (which was kind of obvious) and then she proceeds to help Finny cheat? It’s not described as cheating, but how is it any different from what Jamie and Sasha did to her? She’s being extremely hypocritical? Seriously? And doesn’t Finny realise that he’s cheating? I mean I know he feels guilty, but this is just… so hypocritical of both of them. It threw me off so much.
Everyone said that this would be heartbreakingly sad. I guess it was? But it was such a typical kind of heartbreaking. I didn’t cry a single tear. And I’m someone who cries easily because of books… I’ve cried so often because of a book but with this one, I just vaguely felt sad. The book is okay. It’s seriously just okay. It was okay to pass the time with, but there’s no real reason to read it… I honestly don’t why I was reading it.
What I liked:
I liked some of the observations made on teen culture, especially this
“With my new friends, being weird is a good thing, as long as it’s the same weird as them.”
I thought it was interesting.
I also liked her relationship with Finny… in the beginning.
This is sort of spoiler territory, so proceed with caution…
What I didn’t like:
- First of all, she spends 75% (literally) of the book pining or talking about Jamie. And maybe the last 25% is them actually getting together or something. I get it, I love reading about pining, but this is just a bit too much.
- She gets cheated on (which was kind of obvious) and then she proceeds to help Finny cheat? It’s not described as cheating, but how is it any different from what Jamie and Sasha did to her? She’s being extremely hypocritical? Seriously? And doesn’t Finny realise that he’s cheating? I mean I know he feels guilty, but this is just… so hypocritical of both of them. It threw me off so much.