Written by Leslie Cohen
Review written by Diana Iozzia / Bookworm Banter
"This Love Story Will Self-Destruct" is a great new romantic comedy. This is very different than typical will-they-won't-they books, and it's very reminiscent of "When Harry Met Sally" and many Nora Ephron films, both of which are written about in the blurb and in reviews, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks like this. Clearly, if you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of late 80s and 90s romantic comedies: "Sleepless in Seattle" being my favorite. Maybe I'm just a Meg Ryan fanatic.
Anyway, we meet Eve and Ben in their college years. Eve is an annoying girl, possibly alcoholic, who doesn't know what she's doing in life. She's been hurt before by the abandonment by her father and the death of her mother. She clings to her stepfather, Arthur, and her college friends as she navigates a passionate but chaotic relationship with Jesse. She meets Ben multiple times over her years until they are finally able to connect and fall in love. Stupidly, Eve cheats on Ben when she sees Jesse years later, and of course, he forgives her. I really don't like cheating plots in romantic comedies. Surely, there have to be other ways for romantic leads to find their way back to each other.
I did enjoy this book, but I did have some problems. Sometimes the dialogue is a bit nutty, but it's mostly relatable and realistic. The book sucked me in with a good prologue. Eve asks many sad questions, if an apartment still exists after you move out, if a restaurant stays open after you pay the bill and close the door? Do places still exist in time after you've left? Eve begs the question why it took so long for her and Ben to find each other. I like openings like this.
In addition, Jesse is a great character, although he's actually a terrible human. What's interesting to me is that he's written more with a stronger description and story line than Ben is, who is supposed to be our main character. I mean I like Ben, but the book spent so much time on Jesse, that we hardly know who Ben is. Another thing about Ben is that he knows something really important about Eve that takes him about three years to tell her. He's also kinda stupid. She writes him this funny and weird letter apologizing to him, and it takes him too long to finally find it. Also, goodness gracious how many times can characters, places, and things be considered "exotic"? Honestly, I think I read the word at least four times.
My least favorite thing about this book is the way that the characters find their ways back to each other. It absolutely infuriates me, actually. Eve accidentally bumps into one of Ben's old friends, tells Glick that she still loves Ben, Glick secretly arranges a meeting, Ben leaves, and then he realizes that the beautiful, kind, innocent woman he's with now has nothing on Eve, so he completely drops Natalie for Eve. I'm not sorry to say that Natalie shouldn't set him free so easily. If I had found out that my significant other secretly still loved his ex and wanted to go back to her, I wouldn't just let him go. This is unrealistic and places no blame on Ben for being a shitty person to her. Yuck.
Lastly, I did enjoy this book, despite the slightly unkind characters. But it's hard to find a romantic comedy where the characters are flawless? (Sleepless in Seattle <3) I think this book is a really cool rom-com, and I find it's rare to find such a realistic, honest one in book form. I'd certainly enjoy this if it was turned into a film!
(I received a complementary ARC for reviewing purposes.)
No comments:
Post a Comment