A review by shannon_magee
A Brush with Love by Mazey Eddings

emotional funny lighthearted tense 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

2.5

I think Eddings is a strong writer and clearly captures her character's anxiety. For me, the struggle with this book was the characters themselves more than the writing or even the plot. I had a very hard time sympathizing with Harper because she lacked empathy when it came to how her actions were affecting those around her--throughout the book. Her acknowledgement of this and her steps to remedy this seemed too little, too late, and anxiety does not and should not equal a lack of empathy (if anything, myself and those I know with GAD over-empathize, which makes the anxiety worse when you feel neglectful of friends & loved ones, so this character trait just made Harper read as unsympathetic to me.) And I appreciate that not every character needs to be 100% likeable and all can have many flaws! It just made it difficult for me to sympathize with her during the climactic moments, and I always want to sympathize with the heroines. 

On the other hand, Dan almost read as too invested, too soon to me. He was pure candy of a man. Very sweet, if that's what you're in the mood for--he delivers. But it did frustrate me that when he voiced his own conflicting thoughts/emotions to Harper
she seemed to encourage him to stay in a toxic situation??? Like, when he confessed he was failing and didn't even want to become a dentist in the first place, her first response wasn't "what would you like to do?" or "have you talked to your mom about this" and given him room to talk out his options, but instead ignored all of that and basically encouraged him to stay on the same path as her by saying "I'll help you study" ??? I HATED that. Not only did it show Harper's lack of seeing potentially fulfilling goals for people that were not her own goals (again, lacking empathy), but to encourage someone to stay in an academic environment when there are alternatives that would be more fulfilling and there's no real need for them to stay? To me, that's the crux of everything wrong with higher ed/academia/medicine. These fields can be mentally and emotionally draining, and even toxic when you're passionate about pursuing your degree or doctorate as is. And the value placed on them above other professions by parents/guardians/social structures only exacerbate pressures of feeling not enough, stupid, and anxious for so many. It frustrated me that Harper, someone who is suffering from anxiety heightened by this system, couldn't recognize it hurting someone else and try to support him in the way he needed, instead of encouraging him in that moment to just put his head down and study through it. And it frustrated me that the story left that unaddressed, for the most part. Once again, when Dan had to unpack that for her later on and spell it out, Harper's sadness about it felt like too little, too late and instead became yet something else for Dan to do--cheer her up from being upset over his reality. I would have been more interested in seeing Harper offer Dan great advice and insight, that she could have benefited from herself, but failed to see was needed for her own situation. Because isn't that relatable! But I guess that goes back to my earlier hang-up.
 

Overall, this wasn't my cup of tea. The panic attack/anxiety sections were so well written they were very immersive, to the point of being triggering at times (But I really LOVED that this book began with a content warning for us about these things--top points for CWs, I wish more authors/publishers would include them). But the visceral panic scenes to the really sweet moments felt a little jarring to me. But it might just be that I'm not suited to that level of sweetness! 
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