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A review by thebookberrie
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson
2.0
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried is about a teenager named Dino who works at his parent's funeral home. One day his ex-best friend, July, dies suddenly and then comes back to life on the table. As they both try to figure out what happened, they have to come to turns with the reason they stopped being best friends and move on from there.
I just don't like this book, flat out. It barely ever appealed to me and I only listened to the audiobook for a reading challenge and because it was super short. Even while being super short, I was still so bored. And then this entire book barely even does anything? It feels like the entire thing was maybe two events, and then it ended. People come back to life, we never learn why, they go back to being dead, book is over. Sure there is a whole bunch of mess with Dino and his family and the drama with his boyfriend but it was just so pointless.
Half of Dino's plotline is literally that he dumped his boyfriend because the dude was "too perfect". That's his only personality trait that we see and Dino just keeps angsting about it. The other half is how he ditched his best friend to spend time with his boyfriend. That's pretty much the reason him and July even had an issue? There's also a tiny bit about how he doesn't want to work in his family's funeral home anymore either. The zombie thing is just whatever; there for fun and not ever explained.
This book is supposed to be about an epic friendship but ehhhh. Their friendship was WEAK. Dino was so boring and July herself was such an annoying character. I can't tell if I hated her audiobook narrator because I found the character so annoying or because the audiobook narrator actually had an annoying voice. Probably both at this point. She would just keep saying dumb offensive shit and then being like, I HAVE A GAY FRIEND, IT'S OKAY. Dino even tells her not to do that and she still didn't seem to understand. I don't have a problem with unlikable characters when it makes sense but she can stay dead, thanks.
I didn't like the writing either. It tried so hard to be funny but then it tried to be dramatic and dark and I just didn't care. Not the book for me and the two stars are only because it couldn't even piss me off enough to get one star.
I just don't like this book, flat out. It barely ever appealed to me and I only listened to the audiobook for a reading challenge and because it was super short. Even while being super short, I was still so bored. And then this entire book barely even does anything? It feels like the entire thing was maybe two events, and then it ended. People come back to life, we never learn why, they go back to being dead, book is over. Sure there is a whole bunch of mess with Dino and his family and the drama with his boyfriend but it was just so pointless.
Half of Dino's plotline is literally that he dumped his boyfriend because the dude was "too perfect". That's his only personality trait that we see and Dino just keeps angsting about it. The other half is how he ditched his best friend to spend time with his boyfriend. That's pretty much the reason him and July even had an issue? There's also a tiny bit about how he doesn't want to work in his family's funeral home anymore either. The zombie thing is just whatever; there for fun and not ever explained.
This book is supposed to be about an epic friendship but ehhhh. Their friendship was WEAK. Dino was so boring and July herself was such an annoying character. I can't tell if I hated her audiobook narrator because I found the character so annoying or because the audiobook narrator actually had an annoying voice. Probably both at this point. She would just keep saying dumb offensive shit and then being like, I HAVE A GAY FRIEND, IT'S OKAY. Dino even tells her not to do that and she still didn't seem to understand. I don't have a problem with unlikable characters when it makes sense but she can stay dead, thanks.
I didn't like the writing either. It tried so hard to be funny but then it tried to be dramatic and dark and I just didn't care. Not the book for me and the two stars are only because it couldn't even piss me off enough to get one star.