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A review by beforeviolets
Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
TW: sexual content (onscreen), death of parent (both parents, offscreen, past), grief (heavy theme), trauma, heavy alcohol consumption (arguably dependent), toxic relationship (emotionally abusive, gaslighting), cancer (death, mention, offscreen), parental abandonment (minor), infidelity (past, mention), blood (mention)
Things I liked:
-The chemistry between the characters. The romance between them is wildly compelling from the very beginning and is at the center of what drives this story. It is exactly as it should be for a romance book.
-The Parent Trap inspired camping trip? Brilliant. Has my whole heart. I was laughing out loud the whole time.
-The healing that is approached in the book. Be warned, this is not as light-hearted as it may suggest. We begin the story meeting all of the characters with all of their walls up, filled with fear and putting up a front in the world around them. As the story unravels, we begin to see the cracks in their defenses, and the vulnerability and the growth that is made to overcome their pain and to become better communicators, better friends, better lovers, and better people is astounding and beautiful to watch.
-The overall love in this book. These characters are more than just a friend group, they’re a family. This is shown through tenderness and sacrifice, but also shown through accountability and boundaries. Every single character has something to learn in the way they express love, even the side characters, which I find rare in romance novels. It was nice to see other characters as more than just backdrop or comedic effect.
Things I disliked:
-Despite the fact that Delilah is a lesbian, the word “lesbian” was not used even once. Always something that really bugs me, like as if the word is dirty.
-There is a constant display of dependency on alcohol that went unchecked and undiscussed. There was a drink in almost every character’s hands in nearly every scene, and in the rare moments that there wasn’t, they would say something like “I need a drink” or “I need something stronger” and had a drink in their hand within a matter of sentences. Considering how intense and constant their need for alcohol was, it seemed bizarre and frankly harmful for it to not be commented on AT ALL.
-I didn’t feel like Claire, Astrid, or Iris’s opinion on Delilah as a kid made sense at all. Delilah had literally lost a parent and was obviously deeply depressed and so they viewed her not only as weird, but thought she was a jerk for isolating herself in her own fear and grief? And blamed her for hurting Astrid’s feelings by not hanging out with her? It was just never believable to me and honestly made me think that the three of them were really awful.
- The photograph being used in the gallery show without Claire’s consent. Especially after there was a whole scene making a huge deal about how Delilah knew it was a huge invasion of privacy and would never share it without Claire’s permission, this felt REALLY gross. It wouldn’t have been that hard to insert a line somewhere in which Claire sees it and says something about it like “I wish you had shown it off” or “This is beautiful, it should be in a gallery,” etc. And if the issue was having the “reveal” of the picture later on, we could’ve not had it described to us, the audience, until the end, but Claire still deserved to be talked to about that.
- The choices made for the 3rd Act Breakup and the Get Back Together. Delilah just taking off without any communication feels directly disrespectful to Claire’s trauma and character growth. She is literally currently struggling with setting boundaries about people abandoning her or not communicating with her and for Delilah to do exactly that and then just expect to be taken back (and then be taken back) was so dismissive of Claire’s storyline. It gave Claire an unsatisfying and low-key upsetting conclusion to her story, with her growth being compromised for the sake of Delilah's - which was pretty ironic considering she gives a whole spiel about how she can’t and won’t compromise herself for anyone.
Things I liked:
-The chemistry between the characters. The romance between them is wildly compelling from the very beginning and is at the center of what drives this story. It is exactly as it should be for a romance book.
-The Parent Trap inspired camping trip? Brilliant. Has my whole heart. I was laughing out loud the whole time.
-The healing that is approached in the book. Be warned, this is not as light-hearted as it may suggest. We begin the story meeting all of the characters with all of their walls up, filled with fear and putting up a front in the world around them. As the story unravels, we begin to see the cracks in their defenses, and the vulnerability and the growth that is made to overcome their pain and to become better communicators, better friends, better lovers, and better people is astounding and beautiful to watch.
-The overall love in this book. These characters are more than just a friend group, they’re a family. This is shown through tenderness and sacrifice, but also shown through accountability and boundaries. Every single character has something to learn in the way they express love, even the side characters, which I find rare in romance novels. It was nice to see other characters as more than just backdrop or comedic effect.
Things I disliked:
-Despite the fact that Delilah is a lesbian, the word “lesbian” was not used even once. Always something that really bugs me, like as if the word is dirty.
-There is a constant display of dependency on alcohol that went unchecked and undiscussed. There was a drink in almost every character’s hands in nearly every scene, and in the rare moments that there wasn’t, they would say something like “I need a drink” or “I need something stronger” and had a drink in their hand within a matter of sentences. Considering how intense and constant their need for alcohol was, it seemed bizarre and frankly harmful for it to not be commented on AT ALL.
-I didn’t feel like Claire, Astrid, or Iris’s opinion on Delilah as a kid made sense at all. Delilah had literally lost a parent and was obviously deeply depressed and so they viewed her not only as weird, but thought she was a jerk for isolating herself in her own fear and grief? And blamed her for hurting Astrid’s feelings by not hanging out with her? It was just never believable to me and honestly made me think that the three of them were really awful.
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Infidelity, Blood, and Abandonment