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A review by ninjapants
Penelope in Retrograde by Brooke Abrams
2.25
I’m not sure how I feel about this, it’s kind of a weird one. The summary and opening of the book made it seem as though Smith was going to be the romantic interest so Martin seemed somewhat out of left field. I was just as happy to skip over the second chance romance but it makes a lot of the writing decisions pretty incomprehensible. The beginning goes super hard on the reunion with Smith and the remaining chemistry and affection between them but then that’s it. Building a platonic and friendly relationship or rekindling a romantic relationship are entirely out of consideration and then he completely drops out of the narrative except for when Penelope can be inexplicably angry with him or her dad can use him as a convenient prop. The revealed reason for their breakup is also super dumb and made me even more frustrated with Penelope’s decision making in retrospect than I already was.
Penelope’s relationship with her family was the most interesting but also the most frustrating part of this. Yes, she was frequently the author of her own unhappiness and she needs to own and work on that to be in a good place. But as often happens when the main character is coming to terms with their own flaws, the rest of her terrible family are mostly let off the hook. And they are awful. Her sister’s insistence on blaming Penelope for her parent’s bad actions was understandable, and probably even realistic, but made for an infuriating, annoying read. Except yeah, she’s definitely correct that coming to casually visit your estranged for a decade family so that you can ask for money is sleazy and entitled rather that the girl-boss power move that the author seems to believe it is. The resolution was too easy in terms of both repaired relationships and logistics. Penelope is going to be a partner in her new bookshop from across the country and it’s fine because she can do some social media stuff? Yeah, that’s an irritating fantasy and her partners hopefully kick her out in her ass for being an idiot. The astrology bs also got super annoying.
I thought I was going to rate this as decent, because I did enjoy a lot of it while reading, but the more I think about it the more annoyed I am at the whole mess.
Penelope’s relationship with her family was the most interesting but also the most frustrating part of this. Yes, she was frequently the author of her own unhappiness and she needs to own and work on that to be in a good place. But as often happens when the main character is coming to terms with their own flaws, the rest of her terrible family are mostly let off the hook. And they are awful. Her sister’s insistence on blaming Penelope for her parent’s bad actions was understandable, and probably even realistic, but made for an infuriating, annoying read. Except yeah, she’s definitely correct that coming to casually visit your estranged for a decade family so that you can ask for money is sleazy and entitled rather that the girl-boss power move that the author seems to believe it is. The resolution was too easy in terms of both repaired relationships and logistics. Penelope is going to be a partner in her new bookshop from across the country and it’s fine because she can do some social media stuff? Yeah, that’s an irritating fantasy and her partners hopefully kick her out in her ass for being an idiot. The astrology bs also got super annoying.
I thought I was going to rate this as decent, because I did enjoy a lot of it while reading, but the more I think about it the more annoyed I am at the whole mess.