A review by e_reader
What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli, Adam Silvera

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I'll be honest, I really wanted to love this book. I'd heard great things about it, and loved Adam Silvera's They Both Die At The End but What If It's Us really disappointed me. Given that I intended to read this book for a few years, I picked it as my summer reading book but I just found myself disliking the majority of the book. At least 70% of the book I had to force myself to get through and in general actively disliked it for the majority of the time. The beginning when they were first meeting was good, and I did enjoy the ending a lot.

I found the characters difficult to listen to. They are both terribly insecure (of course), and Ben spends the first third of the book constantly mentioning his ex boyfriend Hudson, who we are instructed to hate but actually becomes quite likeable. Arthur has more money than Ben, a juxtaposition constantly pointed out, but this results in Arthur saying a lot of insensitive things and then Ben forgiving him. For the first 2/3 of the book, I honestly wasn't sure why these two liked each other. It seems all of a sudden
(right around their first kiss)
they become compatible and get along very well. Others have mentioned this, but Arthur was so sensitive
, for example when he finds out Hudson and Ben have summer school together or that Jessie and Ethan are dating, all despite the fact that both groups tried to tell him multiple time beforehand,
that it gets difficult to read at times. Arthur doesn't let someone tell him something important, and then when he eventually finds out he gets upset and makes himself into the victim. 

The writing also felt very simple, which some people might like, but I found it frustrating how much the authors didn't let the reader figure anything out for ourselves. Any metaphor was spelled out, any hint at some larger idea was immediately revealed. 

Although most of the book was a bit of a toxic relationship example, they definitely had a lot of character growth and the ending portrayed what I felt like was a really healthy continuation of their story that made sense. Was going to do just 2 stars, but the ending bumped it up and extra .25 for me. 
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