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Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Pedophilia, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment
For context, I am a woman who grew up in an environment that left me traumatised. Self-harm is something I have struggled with my entire life. I, like the main character of this book, suffer chronic migraines. This is why I feel qualified to hate the way these things were written about in this book.
I am white, so I will not be commenting on how race and race-specific issues are handled, as I am not qualified to decide on this on behalf of bipoc folks.
When you finally think that you've escaped the incessant romanticised trauma porn that lasts the first 30% of this book, it rears its ugly head and backhands you in the form of a random, flippant reveal that the protagonist was raped. While I understand that the idea was to give these characters traumatic backgrounds so that they can become bonded quickly, it feels more like Williams couldn't stop themselves from throwing in OH AND ANOTHER.
Eva's chronic illness is handled so poorly. It feels like Williams didn't bother to talk to someone with a chronic illness prior to writing this book, which is irresponsible and, frankly, insulting when most of the book is from Eva's perspective. "Instant relief" medication and willy-nilly use of opiate pain relief is unrealistic to the point that every time it's mentioned - which is frequently - I got angry.
The unbelievable chronic illness was only trumped by the unbelievable romance. We're meant to believe that these two 30 year olds will fall in insta-love after 15 years of no contact after their 7 day long alcohol and drug fuelled "romance" as teenagers. As I mentioned, I am a product of childhood trauma and I can tell you with absolute certainty that I have next to no memories from being a teenager now that I'm 30. I certainly don't have any memories from the times I was abusing substances during that period of my life. This entire setup for the romance is so obviously unresearched that I completely disengaged with the story.
Aside from all of this, every character talks and thinks like their brains are a youtube comment section. At best it's a bit annoying, at worst it's downright cringe. Every character essentially has the exact same voice, despite one of the characters being Literally 12 Years Old. It is so hard to tell whose perspective you're in at the moment without the characters name or migraines being mentioned.
I'm also half-convinced that Williams was paid for product placement for this book. Every opportunity to mention a Branded Product was taken. It felt like reading a bad, undisclosed advertisement at some points.
As I mentioned, I got to 60% completion. At this point in the book, there is still no plot. The first 30-40% is trauma porn. Then there's a random 10% that's a sort-of date where you end up getting jump-scared by a random ass sex scene where they fuck in a public place, ruining any sort of build-up that you might've been enjoying until that point. Zero intrigue, zero plot, and zero fucks to give.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Self harm, addiction, child neglect, childhood truama, abandonment
That impacted my read
There are things that reading in 2025 concern me in this book but it's not a bad book. Just keep in mind the triggers before engaging.
Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Grief, Car accident, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Medical trauma, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, Blood
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Blood
Also loved the careers they built, a peek into the world of the literati, and all their beautiful designer clothes.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content
Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident
Minor: Death, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Blood, Vomit
Minor: Child abuse
I loved that we got to see brief perspectives from some of the side characters. It was a fun way to explore their characters.
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content
Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Car accident
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Abandonment