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A review by zabeishumanish
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This book starts slow, so so slow, and it hurts. Hurts in that deep dark uniquely queer way when you just can’t make yourself fit in. This book hurts with the pain of not belonging. Of course the book doesn’t end with pain, we get a rather delightful HEA, but that queer pain takes up a majority of this book. I read most books in a day or less, this one took me four and a half months before I could get through all that pain. I’d literally only heard amazing things about this book before picking it up, and it is amazing, I just wish I’d been prepared for all of the hurt too. If I’d been prepared for the complex childhood sense of otherness it probably wouldn’t have been such a long read.
The sex in this is oh so deliciously hot.
At the halfway point of this book I genuinely couldn’t see how it would be possible for this book to have the classic romance HEA in a believable way. I’m still shocked that it was possible, and done well. The character development and relationship development in this book is truly remarkable. Not just Claire and Delilah’s relationship either. I think one of the most standout aspects of this book and likely why it’s gotten so much praise is the full sense of community this book built. Claire’s family with her beautiful weird daughter Ruby and complimented coparent Josh. Claire’s best friends who eventually become Delilah’s first friends. The hurt/comfort we get from Delilah and Astrid’s complex stepsister relationship. All of those relationships in this book make the story so much more than just a romance between Claire and Delilah.
I just want every reader going into this to know that this isn’t a happy fluffy romance. This is a romance that gets fought for. This is a romance that means something.
The sex in this is oh so deliciously hot.
At the halfway point of this book I genuinely couldn’t see how it would be possible for this book to have the classic romance HEA in a believable way. I’m still shocked that it was possible, and done well. The character development and relationship development in this book is truly remarkable. Not just Claire and Delilah’s relationship either. I think one of the most standout aspects of this book and likely why it’s gotten so much praise is the full sense of community this book built. Claire’s family with her beautiful weird daughter Ruby and complimented coparent Josh. Claire’s best friends who eventually become Delilah’s first friends. The hurt/comfort we get from Delilah and Astrid’s complex stepsister relationship. All of those relationships in this book make the story so much more than just a romance between Claire and Delilah.
I just want every reader going into this to know that this isn’t a happy fluffy romance. This is a romance that gets fought for. This is a romance that means something.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, and Sexual content