Review: Never Ever Getting Back Together by Sophie Gonzales
DNFd at 41%
(Click on the title above for a synopsis and more info.)
Okay so it wasn’t *bad*, there were just some choices made that felt inappropriate to me and, bottom line, just made it too much of a young read for me.
I see people say they’ve “aged out” of YA or don’t feel comfortable reading it because they’re too old to relate to it anymore but I have never felt that way. I love rooting for a teen to find self-acceptance, self worth, or a love interest. I have no problem with that at all. Sometimes I even feel like I can vicariously relive my own teen years through them only with a much more satisfying outcome at the end. 😂
I also love a good frothy sleazy reality tv show as much as the next person. But can we at least agree literal teenagers probably shouldn’t be participating in them? These kids are 18. Sigh. No. Nooooo. This felt like a worse kind of exploitation than one normally finds on reality dating shows. And they were there to ostensibly give a second chance to someone they’d previously dated (Jordy, a semi-celeb whose sister married royalty). These girls are 18 in the book but their initial relationships took place mostly when they were SIXTEEN. So… it gets worse?! *facepalm*
Maya, whose boyfriend Jordy cheated on her (when she was 16) with another girl (Skye) is holding Skye accountable. Okay. This is where the “this is too young for me” comes in. The fact that she even feels that way is an indicator of her immaturity. Skye was as much as victim of Maya’s cheating ex as Maya was. I didn’t like that Maya defaulted to hatred of Skye. However, this *isn’t* unbelievable considering they’re only eighteen years old. (That’s not to say all eighteen year olds are immature, but it’s just not out of the realm of believability here.) If the characters had been older, perhaps there’d be room for more logical drama. Give them some life experience to pull from. But as it is, it absolutely reads as a high school age-level story, and (for me) not in a good way.
Overall the writing was great; I think Sophie Gonzales is an amazing, talented writer. It was just what she chose to write *about* that tripped me up. I really loved her book If This Gets Out and absolutely look forward to reading more of her work.
Never Ever Getting Back Together might actually appeal quite a lot to actual TEEN readers. But this didn’t work for me simply because I’m an old. So. 🤷🏻♀️
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the digital arc.
Comments
Post a Comment