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A review by snowwhitehatesapples
This Is How It Happened by Paula Stokes
3.0
Review can also be found at Snow White Hates Apples.
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
This Is How It Happened is just isn’t what I had thought it would be. I don’t know if I’m the only one who got this impression from the blurb, but I had expected an emotional story that constantly has me at the edge of my seat because holy crap dead YouTuber star/boyfriend, girlfriend who may or may not be the cause of his death, and another driver who the public assumes is guilty sounds like the perfect cocktail for an anxiety-inducing and a fast-paced book. Instead, the actual story is mostly slow-paced, and it’s narrated by a girl who’s grief and guilt doesn’t sound sincere.
You see, by ‘a story that constantly has me at the edge of my seat’, I mean that I had expected a book that gradually reveals what happened on The Night Genevieve’s life changed—a book that neatly switches from present to past to present again like what the first three chapters do because it’s supposed to be about how it happened. However, the reality is that the reader gets the entire story of what happened on The Night from Genevieve in a handful of chapters while the bulk of the story is rather unnecessary romance that makes her grief and guilt feel disingenuous. Yeah, Dallas wasn’t a great boyfriend before The Night, and I’m all for Genevieve moving on and living her life. But, Genevieve is also a girl who was reluctant to break up with Dallas despite being unable to forget his mistake even though she has forgiven him. To read about her moving on to another guy so quickly just…cheapens makes her grief in a way—makes it shallow and insincere.
Moreover, due to my aforementioned expectations for the books, the romance also feels like a huge filler. It doesn’t add anything substantial to the story (in the sense that this whole book sounds like it’ll focus on The Night and how things got settled, not on Genevieve moving on), it drags the pacing down and it overshadows the important lessons embedded in the book. I do like Elliot and all, but I dislike it when things are being dragged out even more. Also, Genevieve’s conscience-hashtag-talk is something I never want to go through ever again. It looks cool on paper and once or twice is fine, but there are an increase in the hashtags in one of the chapters and just #ThinkingAboutHow #It’sMentallySaid #IsIncrediblyAwkward.
All in all, This Is How It Happened is more or less ‘meh’ for me. I thought that I finally found another character who I can relate to but as mentioned earlier, Genevieve’s grief and guilt feels too insincere. Nevertheless, I really love the idea for it, the issues it touches, and the diversity Stokes includes. It’s just that I don’t think they were executed effectively, particularly when it comes to the middle of the book. The beginning and ending were great, though!
Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars
This Is How It Happened is just isn’t what I had thought it would be. I don’t know if I’m the only one who got this impression from the blurb, but I had expected an emotional story that constantly has me at the edge of my seat because holy crap dead YouTuber star/boyfriend, girlfriend who may or may not be the cause of his death, and another driver who the public assumes is guilty sounds like the perfect cocktail for an anxiety-inducing and a fast-paced book. Instead, the actual story is mostly slow-paced, and it’s narrated by a girl who’s grief and guilt doesn’t sound sincere.
You see, by ‘a story that constantly has me at the edge of my seat’, I mean that I had expected a book that gradually reveals what happened on The Night Genevieve’s life changed—a book that neatly switches from present to past to present again like what the first three chapters do because it’s supposed to be about how it happened. However, the reality is that the reader gets the entire story of what happened on The Night from Genevieve in a handful of chapters while the bulk of the story is rather unnecessary romance that makes her grief and guilt feel disingenuous. Yeah, Dallas wasn’t a great boyfriend before The Night, and I’m all for Genevieve moving on and living her life. But, Genevieve is also a girl who was reluctant to break up with Dallas despite being unable to forget his mistake even though she has forgiven him. To read about her moving on to another guy so quickly just…cheapens makes her grief in a way—makes it shallow and insincere.
Moreover, due to my aforementioned expectations for the books, the romance also feels like a huge filler. It doesn’t add anything substantial to the story (in the sense that this whole book sounds like it’ll focus on The Night and how things got settled, not on Genevieve moving on), it drags the pacing down and it overshadows the important lessons embedded in the book. I do like Elliot and all, but I dislike it when things are being dragged out even more. Also, Genevieve’s conscience-hashtag-talk is something I never want to go through ever again. It looks cool on paper and once or twice is fine, but there are an increase in the hashtags in one of the chapters and just #ThinkingAboutHow #It’sMentallySaid #IsIncrediblyAwkward.
All in all, This Is How It Happened is more or less ‘meh’ for me. I thought that I finally found another character who I can relate to but as mentioned earlier, Genevieve’s grief and guilt feels too insincere. Nevertheless, I really love the idea for it, the issues it touches, and the diversity Stokes includes. It’s just that I don’t think they were executed effectively, particularly when it comes to the middle of the book. The beginning and ending were great, though!