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A review by aromarrie
Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
"Change is part of growing up. You don't want to stay a kid forever. That's Peter Pan, and he is not the hero of the story. . . The hero of Peter Pan is Wendy. Peter is trapped in a weird fantasy world constructed of his own fears. Wendy goes there, learns what she has to from it, then comes back and gets on with her life."
Paris thought about this. It made a terrible kind of sense. "Oh."
"Come on, you wouldn't want to live in Neverland."
"You say that. But when I left, I grew up into . . . me."
"And I like you."
this story was...so absurdly funny, as promised in all of alexis hall's works. and it has a lot of heart. i also can painfully relate to paris and perhaps felt overwhelmed at how seen i felt, so...that was a welcome surprise. there is a romance, but as seen in other reviews, someone cleverly noted it as a bildungsroman because it is.
this entire book is about paris' journey with his debilitating anxiety that grows increasingly worse & worse over time, all set in the backdrop of a british baking show that is all action & cameras but all paris can do is cry. there's a lot of really good moments to speak of, though, and i personally really enjoyed what the author did in paris' relationship with tariq; i liked how we saw tariq stand in his own spotlight as he's given a lot of space to explore his own complicated feelings and just be able to shine as a main character. the rest of the cast for this season were such an absolute delight, and i love how even as disconnected paris might have felt with the rest of them, they weren't simply shoved into the background for the sake of the plot. some returning characters add their own wit and sly british humor, which i found really funny being an american.
the star of this entire series being the baked treats that we get to see our contestants create was certainly one of the highlights of this book, and so it made me sad how paris kind of derailed and beat himself up over creating something that should be fun & comforting but instead just gets him further stuck inside his head. i'm glad he eventually gets the help he needs, just as equally glad to the author for not holding back on how seriously isolating living with a mental illness can be, especially when you're undiagnosed. a real deciding factor in a reader's enjoyment for this story, i feel, is in how one might react to everything that paris says & does because it has as much to do with his character as it also does the mental roadblocks that is his brain. his fears are riddled with the most tiniest of details that it sometimes felt like too much, but it's like he had no control in it and every thing he beat himself up for or was worried about just grew larger & larger to the point where he was screaming inside. his parents being off the radar didn't help, and other characters might've factored into the equation, but the way the author explored how low you can fall when stuck inside your head and how you can try to fight your way out of it was one of the most incredible things i've ever seen in any of his works.
it meant a lot to me.
paris' mental health journey meant a lot to me, and everyone else just added a lot of color to what is really a bright story, to me. the writing was amazing, and while the majority of penis jokes were very questionable (these characters have really crude humor but i wasn't turned off by it), it didn't disengage me from the story at all, it was just yet another strange but real part of these weird cast of characters and i loved them more for it. i loved all the little details i got to grasp about paris , who isn't defined by his anxiety and is actually really good with baking (even if he couldn't see it in himself, i hope he can have fun with it again one day) and cooking, and he's a classics major, too, would you look at that?
really curious what more mayhem will ensue in the next book and what new main characters i'll get to meet who'll charm me a bunch, i hope. i'll be 23 once it publishes, which is just....great :')
Paris thought about this. It made a terrible kind of sense. "Oh."
"Come on, you wouldn't want to live in Neverland."
"You say that. But when I left, I grew up into . . . me."
"And I like you."
this story was...so absurdly funny, as promised in all of alexis hall's works. and it has a lot of heart. i also can painfully relate to paris and perhaps felt overwhelmed at how seen i felt, so...that was a welcome surprise. there is a romance, but as seen in other reviews, someone cleverly noted it as a bildungsroman because it is.
this entire book is about paris' journey with his debilitating anxiety that grows increasingly worse & worse over time, all set in the backdrop of a british baking show that is all action & cameras but all paris can do is cry. there's a lot of really good moments to speak of, though, and i personally really enjoyed what the author did in paris' relationship with tariq; i liked how we saw tariq stand in his own spotlight as he's given a lot of space to explore his own complicated feelings and just be able to shine as a main character. the rest of the cast for this season were such an absolute delight, and i love how even as disconnected paris might have felt with the rest of them, they weren't simply shoved into the background for the sake of the plot. some returning characters add their own wit and sly british humor, which i found really funny being an american.
the star of this entire series being the baked treats that we get to see our contestants create was certainly one of the highlights of this book, and so it made me sad how paris kind of derailed and beat himself up over creating something that should be fun & comforting but instead just gets him further stuck inside his head. i'm glad he eventually gets the help he needs, just as equally glad to the author for not holding back on how seriously isolating living with a mental illness can be, especially when you're undiagnosed. a real deciding factor in a reader's enjoyment for this story, i feel, is in how one might react to everything that paris says & does because it has as much to do with his character as it also does the mental roadblocks that is his brain. his fears are riddled with the most tiniest of details that it sometimes felt like too much, but it's like he had no control in it and every thing he beat himself up for or was worried about just grew larger & larger to the point where he was screaming inside. his parents being off the radar didn't help, and other characters might've factored into the equation, but the way the author explored how low you can fall when stuck inside your head and how you can try to fight your way out of it was one of the most incredible things i've ever seen in any of his works.
it meant a lot to me.
paris' mental health journey meant a lot to me, and everyone else just added a lot of color to what is really a bright story, to me. the writing was amazing, and while the majority of penis jokes were very questionable (these characters have really crude humor but i wasn't turned off by it), it didn't disengage me from the story at all, it was just yet another strange but real part of these weird cast of characters and i loved them more for it. i loved all the little details i got to grasp about paris , who isn't defined by his anxiety and is actually really good with baking (even if he couldn't see it in himself, i hope he can have fun with it again one day) and cooking, and he's a classics major, too, would you look at that?
really curious what more mayhem will ensue in the next book and what new main characters i'll get to meet who'll charm me a bunch, i hope. i'll be 23 once it publishes, which is just....great :')
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Islamophobia, and Racism