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A review by literarycrushes
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
4.0
All This Could Be Different, a thoughtful and moving debut novel by Sarah Thankam Mathews, falls into one of my favorite recent categories: found queer families. It’s the perfect millennial novel (text bubbles included), set during the recession of 2012. In a way, this is a book about discovering your own self-worth while reckoning with the fact that life hasn’t given you everything you feel you are owed.
Sneha is a recent college graduate who feels lucky to have found a relatively cushy position at a time when many of her friends and fellow graduates are having difficulty landing minimum-wage jobs. She’s new to Milwaukee, new-ish to dating women, and missing her parents, who have moved back to India, despite her troubled relationship with her past. While I absolutely loved how queer this book was, it’s not Sneha’s romantic relationships that will leave me thinking about this book for months (though I really did feel for Marina), but her friendships with Tig, Thom, and Amin. Each character was fully flushed out and real, with their own anti-capitalistic beliefs, fully formed dreams to nurse and crush, and relationships that are constantly in flux. The novel is more character than plot-driven, and one that I feel would be a great book to use as an example in writing classes to demonstrate effective character growth and arcs, as you feel Sneha growing from part one… where you do kind of want to slap her… to the end, which left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling without ever feeling too cheesy. It’s no wonder it has been short-listed for the National Book Award!
Sneha is a recent college graduate who feels lucky to have found a relatively cushy position at a time when many of her friends and fellow graduates are having difficulty landing minimum-wage jobs. She’s new to Milwaukee, new-ish to dating women, and missing her parents, who have moved back to India, despite her troubled relationship with her past. While I absolutely loved how queer this book was, it’s not Sneha’s romantic relationships that will leave me thinking about this book for months (though I really did feel for Marina), but her friendships with Tig, Thom, and Amin. Each character was fully flushed out and real, with their own anti-capitalistic beliefs, fully formed dreams to nurse and crush, and relationships that are constantly in flux. The novel is more character than plot-driven, and one that I feel would be a great book to use as an example in writing classes to demonstrate effective character growth and arcs, as you feel Sneha growing from part one… where you do kind of want to slap her… to the end, which left me with a warm and fuzzy feeling without ever feeling too cheesy. It’s no wonder it has been short-listed for the National Book Award!