A review by rpweber15
I Might Be In Trouble by Daniel Aleman

3.5

I couldn't put this book down and, in fact, stayed up later than normal a couple of nights because of that. The first part of the book, where David and Stacey are dealing with the dead body, is full of hilarious hijacks for which you have to suspend logic. The writing here is sharp and witty; Stacey is painted so clearly that you can immediately envision and hear her; I kind of envisioned a younger Christine Baranski. Anyways, the next part of the book is a mix of our main character spiraling, which gets a bit repetitive, and the events that lead us to the conclusion of the book. The author does a really nice job racking up the tension as we move through this part of the book but the MC is wallowing in so much guilt and grief and despair for the rest of it that we lose the humor that percolated through the first part. The third part of the book is lackluster and deflating.

The somewhat forced confession and downstream consequences are a big letdown given the melodrama of the rest of the story. Everything ends up neatly tied in a bow and there really aren't any consequences for what David and Stacey have done. I understand why the author made the choices he did, but it ends up feeling like 3 separate books in terms of tone and messaging. I am, however, glad that David didn't immediately get back together with Jeremy, who played a tiny role in the book but a huge role in David's life. David did grow by the end of the book and I'm happy that the author allowed that to continue off the page at the end.

Overall, this was a compelling read that kept me up later than my bedtime despite some of its pitfalls. This is a strong debut for a young author and I look forward to seeing what he does next!