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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Predictable without warmth. Weird pacing, too. So yeah.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Holy shit. This book had my jaw on the FLOOR. I completely loved Ava, she was so messy and so neurotic and she reminds me of one of my best friends. The romance was cute, the plot twists were a little predictable but still well done. But the writing omfg. Ava’s brain was astounding, the corporate americas (I interpreted as satire) was uncanny, the relationships were phenomenal. Wow
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I actually don’t have a lot of bad things to say about this book, which is a first for me, a professional hater. I read it in maybe 3-4 sittings, which is insane for me as someone who has a tiny attention span.
I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting to. I loved all the little stabs at the same aspects of contemporary city-living that I’m fed up with, too—but the satire/criticism is so cutely and cleverly done that it never comes across as preachy or in-your-face. As a lesbian misandrist I’m also always totally down for a story about entitled straight men getting their comeuppance and a woman realizing she should probably just stick to women. I liked the central mystery aspects, too, even if I guessed most of the big twists within the first third of the book and I think I’d hesitate to really call the novel a thriller until the end. The writing itself also stood out to me as pretty bland, perfectly serviceable without any bells and whistles. Then again, that may be a matter of preference, as I like a good mixture of straightforward punchiness and purple prose, and this lacked a flowery writing style. Ava herself likes simple and straightforward, so it makes sense.
(Spoilers ahead.)
Ava is incredibly well-written and well-developed, and while I haven’t experienced grief myself, the push-pull between the comfort of familiarity and the lure of the unknown and healing felt very earnestly done. I, of course, may have been pulling my hair out every time she went back to Mat, but I also can’t blame her, and that back-and-forth is convincingly written. I think the side-characters are mostly static which is the only thing I’d ding the character writing for, but that matters to me far less than the main character, whose arc reaches a very satisfying conclusion.
Speaking of conclusions—the ending! I’m torn on this one because from a critical standpoint the slapstick nature of Mat’s comeuppance felt really dissonant from the tone of the book. On the other hand, it was so satisfying and entertaining that I can’t really be bothered to care. But overall, the last few pages gave me something pretty close to the exact kind emotional book hangover I wanted from it.
I enjoyed this way more than I was expecting to. I loved all the little stabs at the same aspects of contemporary city-living that I’m fed up with, too—but the satire/criticism is so cutely and cleverly done that it never comes across as preachy or in-your-face. As a lesbian misandrist I’m also always totally down for a story about entitled straight men getting their comeuppance and a woman realizing she should probably just stick to women. I liked the central mystery aspects, too, even if I guessed most of the big twists within the first third of the book and I think I’d hesitate to really call the novel a thriller until the end. The writing itself also stood out to me as pretty bland, perfectly serviceable without any bells and whistles. Then again, that may be a matter of preference, as I like a good mixture of straightforward punchiness and purple prose, and this lacked a flowery writing style. Ava herself likes simple and straightforward, so it makes sense.
(Spoilers ahead.)
Ava is incredibly well-written and well-developed, and while I haven’t experienced grief myself, the push-pull between the comfort of familiarity and the lure of the unknown and healing felt very earnestly done. I, of course, may have been pulling my hair out every time she went back to Mat, but I also can’t blame her, and that back-and-forth is convincingly written. I think the side-characters are mostly static which is the only thing I’d ding the character writing for, but that matters to me far less than the main character, whose arc reaches a very satisfying conclusion.
Speaking of conclusions—the ending! I’m torn on this one because from a critical standpoint the slapstick nature of Mat’s comeuppance felt really dissonant from the tone of the book. On the other hand, it was so satisfying and entertaining that I can’t really be bothered to care. But overall, the last few pages gave me something pretty close to the exact kind emotional book hangover I wanted from it.
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Interesting read! I wasn't expecting to be engrossed, but I was!
I did not see that plot twist coming at the end.
I did not see that plot twist coming at the end.
Enjoyable but
I couldn't decide if all the fake products were funny or annoying, but it did create a specific feeling that made me feel sort of cushioned from reality. So in that sense, I guess it was effective?
Spoiler
the ending felt rushed and not believable to me. I didn't understand what the motivation was for Mat to do everything he did besides "he's crazy", which to me is lazy. The pacing toward the end felt rushed as well.I couldn't decide if all the fake products were funny or annoying, but it did create a specific feeling that made me feel sort of cushioned from reality. So in that sense, I guess it was effective?
Another great beach read with a quirky protagonist and an unexpected twist.
I thoroughly enjoyed this workplace novel set in the head office of an IKEA-like company where Ava Simon is a senior engineer whose passion project is the Very Nice Box (which is also, of course, a metaphor for Ava's life). When the founder of the company retires, 26-year old slogan-spouting MBA-flashing Mat takes over as Head of Product and disrupts Ava's quiet work practice. Meanwhile, the company is adding a giant new tower to its campus on the site of a community garden and protestors are infiltrating company systems.
There's a very definite whiff of Eleanor Oliphant about Ava which absolutely charmed me. Her tragic backstory is beautifully crafted and gradually unfolds over the course of the book. The support characters are quirky but still feel like real people. Much of the workplace plot is humorously observed and feels authentically modern corporate (though without the tedium of a real work day) and though it does get a little farfetched with a slightly surreal resolution, that didn't worry me too much.
There's a very definite whiff of Eleanor Oliphant about Ava which absolutely charmed me. Her tragic backstory is beautifully crafted and gradually unfolds over the course of the book. The support characters are quirky but still feel like real people. Much of the workplace plot is humorously observed and feels authentically modern corporate (though without the tedium of a real work day) and though it does get a little farfetched with a slightly surreal resolution, that didn't worry me too much.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Man I am not sure what I think about this book. It is certainly original I’ll give them that. A thriller written like a romance. Bizarre. I think it mostly worked but not 100%- especially with the ending. I went into it knowing nothing which I feel like is the best way to do it but apparently some of the physical copies reveal on the jacket that mat isn’t who he claims to be which I’m marking as a spoiler bc it definitely is so why tf would they advertise that??? Weird. I liked not knowing anything, not knowing where the relationship was going and what the fuck Mat’s deal was! I think I would have liked it significantly less if I went into it knowing the twist/reveal. I hope I’m not giving away too much here so people can enjoy it spoiler free.
The modern day wellness work culture was pretty funny, as were the names of all the IKEA-like products tho I think it was a little excessive at times lol.
I really liked Ava. At first I thought she might be autistic but given her trauma she probably has CPTSD- maybe both. I would be interested to hear the authors’ take on Ava. Maybe not everyone thinks this but I thought her to be very likable and a very realistic portrayal of how someone might cope with grief and loss. I was definitely rooting for her.
Tbh I didn’t really like Jaime because I felt like he was unsupportive when he had no concrete reason to be that way. Towards the end of course I ended up liking him but I just feel like overall he’s kinda condescending and patronizing to Ava like he reaaaaaallly acts like he’s better than her and she’s lucky to even be friends with him. I know he was trying to protect her but idk just the way he went about it really rubbed me the wrong way. Like she bails on one lunch and you’re gonna throw a fit and give her the silent treatment? Very childish.
The element of the Vandals was interesting though I don’t know how much it really added to the plot. I guess it just added a mystery element of who is it and is it one of us type thing.
The real question is what fucking genre is this? Bc on paper the plot elements sound like a thriller. But it’s not written that way at all. I think it would have been more effective if the authors were able to create a more ominous atmosphere- with the writing, not the plot elements. I suppose the Vandals contributes to that plot-wise. And the whole Good Guy thing definitely adds a creep factor but like I said the feeling of eerie-ness / something isn’t quite right here was mostly missing for me. I feel like the reader should kind of be second guessing and almost gaslighting themselves (lol) about where the plot is going (HEA or disaster??). That might be a me problem, because I don’t really make predictions while I read and I do know many people called the twist based on reviews, but still I think it should be written in a way to have you in suspense of “okay is this just a romance or is this going to tip into something weird” rather than being certain one way or the other if that makes any sense.
So I found the atmosphere of the writing (the technical aspect of writing was totally fine) to be a little lacking and definitely the ending. The twist is sprung really late and kind of all at once. I think they should have eased into it more a little earlier in the book. The ending with the box just feels a little lacking to me. Like there’s no way he’s dead and there’s no way he’s not going to come after her. And I feel like he deserves more of a long term punishment for being a fucking PSYCHO STALKER MURDERER!!!! I wasn’t sure Mat was end game, but I didn’t think he was gonna be EVIL, and I CERTAINLY didn’t predict his involvement in the accident or him posing as the therapist. In retrospect I totally should have called Mat being evil solely based on the Good Guys thing lmao that is SUCH a red flag. I think I just really wanted Ava to be happy and so I wanted to believe Mat was good.
Overall this is fun, refreshing, and a great discussion book- I feel like I could talk to someone for a long time about this book! (I suppose I kind of have here LOL)
I would recommend this but probably with very little context!
Plot summary for when I forget:
Ava is an engineer at an IKEA-like company. She’s a little quirky- she’s very punctual, very particular about the way she likes things, antisocial, is strict and consistent about routines and dislikes disruption to her routines. These things suggested to me she could be autistic. Oh also her passion for creating boxes lol.
You discover she was in a tragic accident with her girlfriend and parents and she was the only survivor. Her grief has been haunting her ever since. Her whole life is work and her dog. Her obsession for planning (she breaks things down into timed “units”- 30 min blocks) seems to be a trauma response, so maybe she has CPTSD (I mean she most certainly does based on how horrific and impactful that accident was)
In comes her new boss, loud, outgoing, confident, self assured, Uber positive Mat.
There is also a group of “vandals” protesting a new building they’re creating. The vandals damage Ava’s car and render it totaled. Turns out Mat lives in the same complex as her and they begin carpooling, although Ava is very reluctant. She resists what Mat is and represents- straight white entitled man. But finds herself really drawn to *who* Mat is and how he makes her feel. Thus begins a little tug of war- she wants to avoid him on principle, but she is drawn to him.
She consults a therapy app, something akin to Better Help, that the company set her up with, and the therapist essentially encourages her to be open minded and try new experiences.
Thus begins her relationship with Mat. They fall in love. He makes Ava genuinely happy. And for this reason I was rooting for them.
But he’s kinda weird. He’s part of this group called “Good Guys” which is a fraternity-like self-help group with lots of books, and mantras, and acronyms, and therapy-speak. It’s definitely weird and a red flag. As is his excessive positivity.
Higher-ups discover their relationship and force Mat to relocate.
This makes no sense bc before they became an item they were prompted to sign a form declaring their relationship. So why did the rules suddenly change? And later Mat says he looked at the fine print of his contract and all they needed to do was sign papers. So I don’t get it that bit doesn’t make sense.
She breaks up w him.
Months go by of no contact and she’s back to being miserable again.
Then right when she decides to reach out, he’s at her apartment. He quit. He hated it, he wants to be with her, he’ll find a different job. Woo whirlwind romance again, they are back together, living together.
Ava’s work friend Jamie hates Mat, is highly suspicious of him, and is highly judgmental of Ava for dating him. This bugged me. Ava was happy. Jamie begins to go on essentially a smear campaign, digging dirt about Mat. Ava mostly ignores it because she’s happy and Jamie is making her feel like crap.
Then Ava discovers that Mat lied about rehoming his dog. The dog is actually at the shelter and will be put down if she’s not adopted. Big red flag. Then he takes her to one of his Good Guy meetings and he makes a super vague and meaningless speech and mentions their “misunderstanding”- cute way to describe his lie. The meeting gives her mega bad vibes. Straight men patting themselves on the back essentially.
Then Ava and Mat run into a dude Ava went on a date with. This is a guy that went to school at the same time as Mat, they should know each other. Ava encourages them to connect but they don’t- the dude doesn’t know who Mat is and Mat is becoming increasingly flustered. It becomes clear he never went to that school and completely lied. Ava is panicking. She runs to Jaime’s, where he is glad they’re breaking up, or so he thinks.
But when she goes back home Mat has a little sob story for her about being bullied and how they ruined his changes to go to Penn and so he was supposed to go so he just lied about it. She forgives him, with vague encouragement from the app therapist.
HOWEVER- as he’s driving her to a work function he notices another driver being blinded by the light of a hanging disco Mat has. And Ava realizes that the light she saw flash in her eyes the night of the car accident is that same light, from the disco, and she realizes Mat was responsible for the hit and run. She remains calm as he drops her off and she messages the therapist about feeling alone. And then Mat shows up to the party and says “you’re not alone”… HE WAS POSINF AS THE THERAPIST!!!! What a psycho omg!!! Then he goes on a tangent of how he’s helping her heal from the accident and how it’s actually a good thing that it happened and brought them together. She is desperate to get away from him but he follows her all throughout the party, no one stopping him or doing anything. Eventually she runs away to the manufacturing part of the building where her boxes are being put together. Because she knows the safety protocol and Mat doesn’t, he gets in the way of the assembly and gets trapped in a box as it’s assembled around him. Ava doesn’t stop it. Jaime arrives saying he saw Mat and had run to get security. They just let Mat be stuck in the box- after all there is a safety unlatch button on the inside, if a child could figure out he should be able to too.
Jaime forgives Ava for ignoring all his warnings. He even sent her video footage of Mat destroying her car but she had trashed the email.
Ava quits the job and begins the healing process. What happened to mat? WHO KNOWS! Lmao.
The modern day wellness work culture was pretty funny, as were the names of all the IKEA-like products tho I think it was a little excessive at times lol.
I really liked Ava. At first I thought she might be autistic but given her trauma she probably has CPTSD- maybe both. I would be interested to hear the authors’ take on Ava. Maybe not everyone thinks this but I thought her to be very likable and a very realistic portrayal of how someone might cope with grief and loss. I was definitely rooting for her.
Tbh I didn’t really like Jaime because I felt like he was unsupportive when he had no concrete reason to be that way. Towards the end of course I ended up liking him but I just feel like overall he’s kinda condescending and patronizing to Ava like he reaaaaaallly acts like he’s better than her and she’s lucky to even be friends with him. I know he was trying to protect her but idk just the way he went about it really rubbed me the wrong way. Like she bails on one lunch and you’re gonna throw a fit and give her the silent treatment? Very childish.
The element of the Vandals was interesting though I don’t know how much it really added to the plot. I guess it just added a mystery element of who is it and is it one of us type thing.
The real question is what fucking genre is this? Bc on paper the plot elements sound like a thriller. But it’s not written that way at all. I think it would have been more effective if the authors were able to create a more ominous atmosphere- with the writing, not the plot elements. I suppose the Vandals contributes to that plot-wise. And the whole Good Guy thing definitely adds a creep factor but like I said the feeling of eerie-ness / something isn’t quite right here was mostly missing for me. I feel like the reader should kind of be second guessing and almost gaslighting themselves (lol) about where the plot is going (HEA or disaster??). That might be a me problem, because I don’t really make predictions while I read and I do know many people called the twist based on reviews, but still I think it should be written in a way to have you in suspense of “okay is this just a romance or is this going to tip into something weird” rather than being certain one way or the other if that makes any sense.
So I found the atmosphere of the writing (the technical aspect of writing was totally fine) to be a little lacking and definitely the ending. The twist is sprung really late and kind of all at once. I think they should have eased into it more a little earlier in the book. The ending with the box just feels a little lacking to me. Like
Overall this is fun, refreshing, and a great discussion book- I feel like I could talk to someone for a long time about this book! (I suppose I kind of have here LOL)
I would recommend this but probably with very little context!
Plot summary for when I forget:
Ava is an engineer at an IKEA-like company. She’s a little quirky- she’s very punctual, very particular about the way she likes things, antisocial, is strict and consistent about routines and dislikes disruption to her routines. These things suggested to me she could be autistic. Oh also her passion for creating boxes lol.
You discover she was in a tragic accident with her girlfriend and parents and she was the only survivor. Her grief has been haunting her ever since. Her whole life is work and her dog. Her obsession for planning (she breaks things down into timed “units”- 30 min blocks) seems to be a trauma response, so maybe she has CPTSD (I mean she most certainly does based on how horrific and impactful that accident was)
In comes her new boss, loud, outgoing, confident, self assured, Uber positive Mat.
There is also a group of “vandals” protesting a new building they’re creating. The vandals damage Ava’s car and render it totaled. Turns out Mat lives in the same complex as her and they begin carpooling, although Ava is very reluctant. She resists what Mat is and represents- straight white entitled man. But finds herself really drawn to *who* Mat is and how he makes her feel. Thus begins a little tug of war- she wants to avoid him on principle, but she is drawn to him.
She consults a therapy app, something akin to Better Help, that the company set her up with, and the therapist essentially encourages her to be open minded and try new experiences.
Thus begins her relationship with Mat. They fall in love. He makes Ava genuinely happy. And for this reason I was rooting for them.
But he’s kinda weird. He’s part of this group called “Good Guys” which is a fraternity-like self-help group with lots of books, and mantras, and acronyms, and therapy-speak. It’s definitely weird and a red flag. As is his excessive positivity.
Higher-ups discover their relationship and force Mat to relocate.
This makes no sense bc before they became an item they were prompted to sign a form declaring their relationship. So why did the rules suddenly change? And later Mat says he looked at the fine print of his contract and all they needed to do was sign papers. So I don’t get it that bit doesn’t make sense.
She breaks up w him.
Months go by of no contact and she’s back to being miserable again.
Then right when she decides to reach out, he’s at her apartment. He quit. He hated it, he wants to be with her, he’ll find a different job. Woo whirlwind romance again, they are back together, living together.
Ava’s work friend Jamie hates Mat, is highly suspicious of him, and is highly judgmental of Ava for dating him. This bugged me. Ava was happy. Jamie begins to go on essentially a smear campaign, digging dirt about Mat. Ava mostly ignores it because she’s happy and Jamie is making her feel like crap.
Then Ava discovers that Mat lied about rehoming his dog. The dog is actually at the shelter and will be put down if she’s not adopted. Big red flag. Then he takes her to one of his Good Guy meetings and he makes a super vague and meaningless speech and mentions their “misunderstanding”- cute way to describe his lie. The meeting gives her mega bad vibes. Straight men patting themselves on the back essentially.
Then Ava and Mat run into a dude Ava went on a date with. This is a guy that went to school at the same time as Mat, they should know each other. Ava encourages them to connect but they don’t- the dude doesn’t know who Mat is and Mat is becoming increasingly flustered. It becomes clear he never went to that school and completely lied. Ava is panicking. She runs to Jaime’s, where he is glad they’re breaking up, or so he thinks.
But when she goes back home Mat has a little sob story for her about being bullied and how they ruined his changes to go to Penn and so he was supposed to go so he just lied about it. She forgives him, with vague encouragement from the app therapist.
HOWEVER- as he’s driving her to a work function he notices another driver being blinded by the light of a hanging disco Mat has. And Ava realizes that the light she saw flash in her eyes the night of the car accident is that same light, from the disco, and she realizes Mat was responsible for the hit and run. She remains calm as he drops her off and she messages the therapist about feeling alone. And then Mat shows up to the party and says “you’re not alone”… HE WAS POSINF AS THE THERAPIST!!!! What a psycho omg!!! Then he goes on a tangent of how he’s helping her heal from the accident and how it’s actually a good thing that it happened and brought them together. She is desperate to get away from him but he follows her all throughout the party, no one stopping him or doing anything. Eventually she runs away to the manufacturing part of the building where her boxes are being put together. Because she knows the safety protocol and Mat doesn’t, he gets in the way of the assembly and gets trapped in a box as it’s assembled around him. Ava doesn’t stop it. Jaime arrives saying he saw Mat and had run to get security. They just let Mat be stuck in the box- after all there is a safety unlatch button on the inside, if a child could figure out he should be able to too.
Jaime forgives Ava for ignoring all his warnings. He even sent her video footage of Mat destroying her car but she had trashed the email.
Ava quits the job and begins the healing process. What happened to mat? WHO KNOWS! Lmao.