summerofchels 's review for:

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

3.0

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Over the last month I've been reading through Emma Straub’s books in reverse chronological order and after absolutely loving the first couple, I am beginning to understand why her earlier books seem to get such mixed reviews. While I didn't hate this book, I definitely didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as her two most recent novels. I felt like this one really lacked the heart that her more recent work has, and there were more than a handful of times while reading this one that she would phrase things or have the characters do/say things that really gave me pause. In fairness though that probably has a lot to do with the fact that this book came out in 2016 and the world of publishing (and just the world as whole, tbh) has changed quite a bit since then lol. Anyway this wasn't bad, but it just didn't wow me. Which is fine! I'll take loving her more current writing style where she has the potential to publish more things that I'll love over preferring the old and having nothing left to look forward to any day of the week lol

CW: divorce, fire, cheating