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A review by ashley_mrose530
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I'm going to be honest, I didn't enjoy this one, especially in the first half.
To start, this book is dual POV, but you don't get that second POV until half way through the book. It's split almost exactly down the middle and I found that REALLY jarring. The first half was in Theo's POV and then where the narrative lands at for the change isright after Kit kisses them for the first time again and it really sucked because I wanted to get Theo's reaction to that but instead we completely shift everything. It changes POV and goes back in time for a little bit and then when the narrative comes back to the present, it's not even right after that event, it's like the next day. I was so disoriented and frankly frustrated that I almost DNF'd the book right there.
That being said, I did actually enjoy Kit's POV better than Theo's. I'm not sure if I liked the voice better - the pining - or the events of the story itself. I felt like the two started actually growing closer during the second half of the book and I felt that a lot more then too. The first half was almost boring and I didn't see any chemistry between them. It was so bad that I didn't understand why Theo even realized that they were still in love with Kit because I didn't see anything growing between them or igniting that. The second half started actually giving them more interactions and chemistry so that helped me get through to the end.
Now I'm going to talk about the audiobook itself. At the beginning of every "chapter" (the book is split up so that every place they visit is a new chapter in the book) it would play some instrumental music that I'm guessing is native to that place (?). The first time it happened I was so confused because usually there's only instrumental music at the beginning and end of a book so I thought I had somehow skipped to the end but I didn't. It took a little getting used to, but I think it was a cool idea overall.
In the end, I think this book just didn't really work for me which was disappointing because I did enjoy McQuiston's other works.
To start, this book is dual POV, but you don't get that second POV until half way through the book. It's split almost exactly down the middle and I found that REALLY jarring. The first half was in Theo's POV and then where the narrative lands at for the change is
That being said, I did actually enjoy Kit's POV better than Theo's. I'm not sure if I liked the voice better - the pining - or the events of the story itself. I felt like the two started actually growing closer during the second half of the book and I felt that a lot more then too. The first half was almost boring and I didn't see any chemistry between them. It was so bad that I didn't understand why Theo even realized that they were still in love with Kit because I didn't see anything growing between them or igniting that. The second half started actually giving them more interactions and chemistry so that helped me get through to the end.
Now I'm going to talk about the audiobook itself. At the beginning of every "chapter" (the book is split up so that every place they visit is a new chapter in the book) it would play some instrumental music that I'm guessing is native to that place (?). The first time it happened I was so confused because usually there's only instrumental music at the beginning and end of a book so I thought I had somehow skipped to the end but I didn't. It took a little getting used to, but I think it was a cool idea overall.
In the end, I think this book just didn't really work for me which was disappointing because I did enjoy McQuiston's other works.