A review by lalazu
Gena/Finn by Kat Helgeson, Hannah Moskowitz

3.0

This was.... not what I expected at all. And not in a good way.

The first half or so went how I wanted to read a book about online friends and their relationships formed over fandom and how it affects their real lives. And then suddenly? I was reading a trauma story? Which by itself wouldn't be so bad. I liked the use of poems, I liked the representation of mental illnesses. But it did not work in a book like this.

Spoiler

I was fine with Zack dying but then suddenly Gena was so broken and the whole story broke with it. It was not pleasing to read in the least. The conclusion was also kind of weak and, yes, trauma, PTSD, all of that is a long, long process. But in the fiction I'm reading, this was too real. Much too real. It left me with a bitter aftertaste and I don't like it.