A review by prosepander
Please Stop Trying to Leave Me by Alana Saab

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense 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

4.0

 Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

All my existential dread wrapped up in almost 400 pages of deeply emotional prose. Please Stop Trying to Leave Me is the story of Norma, who has just started seeing her new therapist. Told in alternating chapters that cover Norma’s conversations with her therapist and a collection of her short stories, we slowly learn about the deepest parts of Norma: her derealization/depersonalization tendencies known as Oblivion, her relationship with queerness, her relationship with her family, and her relationship with love. 

This is not a light read. Throughout the novel we follow Norma through some of the roughest parts of her mental illness. Not only that, but Saab also raises some very real questions about how to operate in society when the ticking clock of climate change hovers over us, when our phones listen to us to provide a more relevant ad experience, and when we’re constantly exposed to violence, bigotry, and warfare on every screen? 

Ultimately, this was a rough read for me, but necessary. I saw myself in Norma, and though Please Stop Trying to Leave Me didn’t necessarily provide any answers, it was cathartic to watch her journey crawling out of Oblivion.