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A review by bookishbrenbren
How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Um what. This book make no fking sense. Bc the characters are underdeveloped and have no internal arc/growth. So their decisions and choices make no sense and are not connected to who they supposedly are as people. The story is all plot *things are happening and there is sex!* but I need something deeper to believe true love is real lmao this book made me feel nothing except these two horndogs have sexual chemistry.
The very icky premise is laid out in the first chapter: the pair is a woman whose sister committed suicide and the man who was driving the car when she ran into traffic. Um why??? Why did that need to be a couple?!?! so anyway, i go on reading because it's so highly hyped, waiting for the ickiness to smooth itself out and for all these characters to like work through their collective, shared trauma and like let that emotional work bring them closer lol no none of that happens. For some reason, the main character is not turned off enough by her own grief and her partner's role in that grief - or at least his connection to it - to not have sex with him. And it's very weird like all around like have any of the people on the production side of this book ever lost a family member and/or experienced grief?? Like I know they must have, but I'm just wondering how this book ends up the book that it is. Idk call me crazy but grief is not a huge turn on for me. Much less grief by suicide! Were there sensitivity readers? I'm dying to know because some of the language used in this book seems very yeah I'm just gonna say it again icky.
If this was real like and the girl you ran over's sister asked you to fuck off their show's adaptation writing team, why would you say No!? Obviously he's not hurting for opportunities. And why would you EVER forgive him for saying no???? Can I not just suffer once, you want me to suffer every day I show up to work? Again I return to the idea that none of these editors, agents, writer, have ever actually lost anyone close to them.
Anyways. Ultimately the biggest issue here is that there is no character development. The pair has sexual chemistry as I mentioned before, but we have no idea why they do the things they do. Like it's clear, given their shared trauma, why they would *not* want to get together but what is making them ignore all of that self preservation? We'll never know because these characters are like an inch deep.
The very icky premise is laid out in the first chapter: the pair is a woman whose sister committed suicide and the man who was driving the car when she ran into traffic. Um why??? Why did that need to be a couple?!?! so anyway, i go on reading because it's so highly hyped, waiting for the ickiness to smooth itself out and for all these characters to like work through their collective, shared trauma and like let that emotional work bring them closer lol no none of that happens. For some reason, the main character is not turned off enough by her own grief and her partner's role in that grief - or at least his connection to it - to not have sex with him. And it's very weird like all around like have any of the people on the production side of this book ever lost a family member and/or experienced grief?? Like I know they must have, but I'm just wondering how this book ends up the book that it is. Idk call me crazy but grief is not a huge turn on for me. Much less grief by suicide! Were there sensitivity readers? I'm dying to know because some of the language used in this book seems very yeah I'm just gonna say it again icky.
If this was real like and the girl you ran over's sister asked you to fuck off their show's adaptation writing team, why would you say No!? Obviously he's not hurting for opportunities. And why would you EVER forgive him for saying no???? Can I not just suffer once, you want me to suffer every day I show up to work? Again I return to the idea that none of these editors, agents, writer, have ever actually lost anyone close to them.
Anyways. Ultimately the biggest issue here is that there is no character development. The pair has sexual chemistry as I mentioned before, but we have no idea why they do the things they do. Like it's clear, given their shared trauma, why they would *not* want to get together but what is making them ignore all of that self preservation? We'll never know because these characters are like an inch deep.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol