catearphanatic
This book was a hard no for me. I hung onto the hope that it would get better and so I forcefully finished reading it but the end was just as disappointing as the rest. This book had so much potential. I was really intrigued by the idea of having stereotypes turned on their heads and therefore creating a new, interesting love story that I hadn't read before, but sadly that wasn't the case. The book was so cliché. Audrey would write and complain about one aspect of romance films and then exactly that would happen in her life as well. She would always rant about how horrible romance movies were, giving the example that women always liked to watch action movies and drink beer. This is an extremely stereotyped view in itself!!! I myself absolutely LOVE action movies (I would NEVER complain) and a lot of my girl friends very happily drink beer! I'd even say watching action movies and drinking beer is a very NON-sterotypical thing to do for women in movies. From the premise Harry was supposed to be the cliché one but Audrey was so much cliché herself that Harry seemed already normal again. I hated how she obviously fell for him while still saying he was getting on her nerves and complaining about his flirting only to instantly complain once it was gone. Also her eruptions of anger wer just so random and then in the next moment she would adore Harry again with every fibre of her being (*cough* *cough* CLICHÉ!!!!!! *cough* *cough*). Harry on the other hand had a few good moments when he was serious, but most of the time when he was being flirtatious and supposedly funny he was just plain annoying and I felt myself heavily roll my eyes multiple times. Everyone in the book seemed so charmed by him and giggled every time a word would leave his mouth even though what he had said was far from funny or clever or charming. And finally, the dialogue was absolutely horrible. It felt forced just so it could make a point and often it didn't even make sense half of the time and how all the characters were reacting off of each other. For that that this book claims NOT to be like the typical, annoying love stories, we've already seen and read too much of, it's so packed with clichés. The book claims to show realistic relationships, however, everything is painted SO black and white. Everyone is mean to Audrey (or she is to them) her father is described as an absolute asshole with no heart, his new wife is a bitch, her mother - ok, she's maybe in a grey area - but she's still not painted in a very acceptable light and then her brother is also a real dick to her. They have no other dimensions than their bad behavior, no redeemable qualities, no good reasons for the things they are doing. That's just not how real life works. Additonally, in Harry and Audrey's relationship it is ALWAYS Harry the one who messes up. Audrey never makes a mistake or treats Harry badly or unfairly (at least it's not portrayed that way). No, it's always Harry who has to grovel and apologize. THAT is ALSO not how real relationships, how HUMANS work. Also can we please talk about how Harry insists on not putting on a condom and then it's painted like Audrey is the bossy and weird one for making him go to the doctor to make sure he doesn't have any infections?!?!?!?!??!?!? That is so messed up! This book was just a really, really, really cliché love story that thought it was original by having a """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""clever"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""twist"""""""""""""""""""" at the end, that *gasp* they don't actually stay together (which I have an absolute problem with bc 1. this is not the first story to have done this, even though it seems to think it is oh os revolutionary, and 2. bc the rest is every tricking cliché in the book. If you can't write a good original story at least stick to the clichés for the ending as well. Sigh. I had high, high hopes for this book. I'm sad it so much didn't live up to my expectations.
