A review by ericageorge91
Nevermore Bookstore by Cynthia St. Aubin, Kerrigan Byrne

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was a white feminist wet dream. The good chronic pain rep from the FMC and the PTSD from the MMC was not enough to make up for the cringey writing and thin storyline. 

For reference, I’m using Book Roast’s CAWPILE rating system and SusanLynKnits’s detailed rating definitions:



Characters: 2/10 - I want to punch them. They don’t seem like real people.

Fox is this brooding, mAnLy MaN who’s too dangerous to be around so he lives in the mountains because he’s too feral (his words) for human consumption. Why? He’s a vet with PTSD after being a POW. I cannot understate how little I cared for him or about him. It’s like the authors missed the memo that Edward Cullen’s stalking was actually quite creepy and wrote Fox straight out of their wet dreams. The amount of snarling and growling from this man had me think that this was going to be a paranormal romance. I was sorely mistaken.  He’s just…like that. 

Cady was really good chronic pain representation. That’s all I got. She was quirky and not like other girls in a way that made my eyes roll. I think she was supposed to be fat rep as well, but the woman on the book cover looks perfectly average to me so I couldn’t say for sure 🤷🏾‍♀️ 

Fox, Cady, and this merry band of characters were supposed to provide comic relief with their banter and whatnot. I was not amused. When a book that’s supposed to be funny is not funny, it makes me mad. 

Atmosphere: 5/10 – No strong feelings. I love book stores, so there that. 

Writing Style: 3/10 – Why would you do that?

*cracks knuckles*

What could possibly possess two white woman to compare their white protagonist’s pubic hair to Colin Kaepernick’s Afro? QUICKLY. 

“How can you like it? It’s like I have Colin Kaepernick in a leg lock down there” (287).

This racist joke is met with laughter and then continues in an odd debate on whether these pubes were soft or “crispy” (287). 

On top of that, outside of an offhand remark about a minor character being racist, I didn’t see anything about black people, brown people, or other POC. The lack of any type of discussion in regard to racial identity made this tone-deaf comparison seem all the more glaring. Also, keep in mind that they wrote this joke about a black, activist who was protesting police brutality. This included cases of black men dying from illegal chokeholds so the “leg lock” comment seemed especially in poor taste. 

This book was full of pointedly feminist, anti-ableist, gender/sexual identity inclusive takes, all of which I agree with. However, Byrne and St. Aubin wrote them in such a heavy handed manner that I low-key understood when conservatives complain about people throwing shit in media just to check off boxes. And I resent the fact that these women’s writing put me off so much that I even have to admit that. 

Additionally, I don’t know how old and Byrne and Aubin are, but their sloppy attempts at sounding like Gen Z (or whatever tone they were going for) repeatedly pulled me out of the story. Here’s a small list of words/phrases that made me mutter “What?” out loud to myself: 

Shit snacks
Pecker
Shitheel
Mouth parts 
King shit of fuck mountain

They had a character say “TL;DR” out loud, which on top of people not usually using text-speak while talking, this LITERALLY doesn’t make sense because, again, this is a verbal! Conversation! 

I also struggle to believe that someone like Fox, a vet-turned-mountain-hermit, would describe himself as a “cisgender, straight, masculine-presenting, neurodivergent white man” (288). I don’t mean to say that such a vet doesn’t exist but it felt so out of place that it also had me rolling my eyes. 

I don’t know. I was told that this was satire, but I thought that satire actually has to be good for it to land 🤔

Plot: 3/10 – Totally predictable or confusing.

The love triangle was between a cop and a military vet. My disinterest towards both romantic prospects cannot be understated. 

I don’t know what was going on in the end with everyone popping up in this “J’accuse!” moment. I was confused about Roy and the mayor’s motivations. Why does Fox know Judy? What was happening with the affair? Nothing made sense and I don’t care enough to find out. 

Intrigue: 1/10 - It’s only how many pages?

The only thing worse than a book being bad is it being long and bad. I dreaded picking up the book and kept counting how many pages I had left to keep me going. 

Logic: 3/10 – The author never explained stuff. 

See “Plot.”

Enjoyment:  1/10 – Why didn’t I DNF?

See above sections. 

2+5+3+3+1+3+1 = 18/7 = 2.57

1.1-2.2 = ⭐
2.3-4.5 = ⭐⭐
4.6-6.9 = ⭐⭐⭐
7.0-8.9 = ⭐⭐⭐⭐
9.0-10 = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

= 2⭐️

TW: Grief, panic attacks, 
Rep: Chronic pain (ankylosing spondylitis), PTSD, queer FMC, ADHD minor character