A review by thatotherjlo
The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I can’t quite tell if this is a love letter to the romance novel or a call for its reinvention; Florence spends long enough complaining about how she wants to write something other than romance, you’d expect some subversion of the genre, at least, but in the end we get a predictable textbook romance plot and resolution. There was such potential to do something more with the ghosts and Florence’s relationship with them, for instance, but instead they come across as basically a plot device to make Florence quirky and give her a tragic past. That was disappointing.

This dissonance over genre matches up with the difficulty I have understanding Florence’s characterization and arc; I can’t tell why she makes the choices she does, either internally or in her relationships with others. This felt especially jarring because of the book’s being written in first person. By the end, her characterization came across as inconsistent and I felt like I barely knew Benji, the love interest who’s a pretty constant presence throughout the book, which made me be uninvested in the relationship. (I am also just not a fan of books that make endless pop culture references, as happens with popular book titles in this one; it felt a little gimmicky.)

In general, the premise was promising and allowed for an unusual version of some of romance’s most common tropes (misunderstandings, forced proximity, etc). There is a lot of lost potential in what Poston does with that premise, but the predictability makes this an easy, relaxing read, and sometimes that is precisely what you need. If that’s the case, this might be a good choice for you!