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youreadtoomuch 's review for:
The Very Nice Box
by Eve Gleichman, Laura Blackett
Sometimes I wish I had my life so chaotically organized as Ava has her life. She plans her life into 30 minute units, like come on. This book starts off sad: Ava is still mourning her girlfriend’s death and is consumed by her work. She has one work friend whose friendship doesn’t extend outside of work. That is, until her new boss, Mat, comes in with a “motivate through positivity” attitude and takes a shine to Ava. While an unlikely friendship (and romance), it was a sweet buildup that even blinded me to how weird it was. But just like a honeymoon phase ends, so did this relationship crumble and all its ugly parts came out. Important to note: the ugliness came from Mat and not the relationship he forged with Ava. This book became a thriller within a matter of pages with a satisfying, little plot twist that was so rewarding (and a bit sad) to see come together.
Wish we got to see Ava open up more with her work friend, whose name keeps escaping me. But she also wasn’t a great work friend. Did we like Ava? Yeah, probably.
I will say, I didn’t enjoy the way Ava’s sexuality was referred to. I don’t remember if they labeled it but it gave off the impression of either or. When Ava is with a women, they visit the idea that she still wants to be with men, which valid, and then that lead into a very specific fantasy, also fine. But then when with a man, they visited the idea of will you leave me for a woman and depicted her past as performative and for the male gaze. There was a specific preoccupation that Ava just had to choose women or men, and not just exist in her bisexuality (again not labeled).
Wish we got to see Ava open up more with her work friend, whose name keeps escaping me. But she also wasn’t a great work friend. Did we like Ava? Yeah, probably.
I will say, I didn’t enjoy the way Ava’s sexuality was referred to. I don’t remember if they labeled it but it gave off the impression of either or. When Ava is with a women, they visit the idea that she still wants to be with men, which valid, and then that lead into a very specific fantasy, also fine. But then when with a man, they visited the idea of will you leave me for a woman and depicted her past as performative and for the male gaze. There was a specific preoccupation that Ava just had to choose women or men, and not just exist in her bisexuality (again not labeled).