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A review by fictionesque
Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg
1.0
Might lower this to one star later, haven't decided. This isn't the worst thing I've ever read but it really has too many problems for me to say I enjoyed it. The TL;DR is that it feels shallow. More specific issues are:
*Protagonist and love interest are both in their thirties. Both act like they're thirteen year olds. (Example: guy will say something like "sure let's do it" and then he'll immediately start blushing and stammering and he'll be like
"I--I didn't mean it like THAT--OWO I didn't MEAN to mention S*X..oh no frick frack")
*Author claims on Twitter protagonist is "strong female." Said strong female is so passive that it's actually (and I hate this word but have to use it anyway) toxic. It being mentioned three times that she lifts weights doesn't make her strong.
*So many pop-culture references that it makes me want to burn a building down (in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga).
*In many ways this book feels like it's written for tweens because of the extensive pointless text conversations we see between protagonist and love interest that are literally just them exchanging GIFS. Like...I do not give a flying fuck if the protagonist sent a Barney GIF oh my Godddd who cares? Like all of those bulked up the book so badly and made me feel like I was reading something from the YA section. Just summarize in one sentence that they've been texting and talk about how it's making the characters feel, so it actually progresses the plot.
*This story could have been half the length, as other reviewers have pointed out. There is sooo much filler and unnecessary information that it made the story drag and made me feel fed up as a reader.
*The language often felt extremely fanfiction-y and melodramatic. Alisha meets Quentin and her knees nearly give out, and her stomach turns inside out. Girl are you okay??? I was expecting her to explode when Quentin kissed her.
*I really don't understand why Quentin likes or is chasing this woman who repeatedly told him throughout the story that she wasn't ready for a relationship and was too damaged to date him. Like I'm sorry but if someone tells you that shit over and over the move is not to continue chasing them, the move is to just say 'ok' and move on and date Bridget or whoever. I would understand if Quentin and Alisha had been in a relationship at that point because it's like ok maybe he knew she was self-sabotaging but the bottom line is that he DIDN'T and they never even established they were bf/gf and literally went on like 2.5 dates like you do NOT know someone well enough at that point to know what's good for them.
*Alisha throughout this book just comes across as a woman who wants to just work on her bakery and lift weights and vibe without a man. It's literally every other character who is pressuring her to 'get yourself a man girrrrrl' when she repeatedly says she isn't emotionally ready and has a duty to her family. This story's resolution is that she should not trust her own instincts that are telling her she is not ready and instead just bite the bullet and date some hot guy she has nothing but liking Jurassic Park in common with. It's honestly really antifeminist and kind of...not a great message. Just because she's thirty and has been single for seven years doesn't mean that she NEEDS to get a man. Maybe she's not done healing or isn't mature enough? She certainly seems that way, even at the end of the book.
*Truly I didn't feel like Quentin had a super distinct personality and it made it hard to find him dreamy. He just felt like Dream Boat Professor Guy (who sorta kinda has romantic baggage that's mentioned twice) but he didn't have any weird quirks or interesting personality traits that made him come to life. I think this made him feel like a shallowly developed character. I know he wants to impress his father too but idk it's just all so trope-y and stereotypical. There wasn't anything really special about him.
*This book almost would have been better written as a literary fiction bittersweet kind of thing, maybe about Alisha gaining her independence and realizing that she was trying to please others and put others before herself in dating Quentin, just like she always does. I feel like that would have felt more real. Quentin does not feel like an end-game love interest, he and Alisha are just at too different parts of their lives. That's not bad, it just would have worked better as this maybe more sweeping, covering many years, scientific dark academia magnum opus.
Anyway this author is not Bad per se this book just felt like a not super great execution. However it's an interesting enough concept that I could see her books getting better over the years. This author also definitely uses TikTok. That's just the vibe and it's not serving.
Oh also.
DYSTOPIA
*Protagonist and love interest are both in their thirties. Both act like they're thirteen year olds. (Example: guy will say something like "sure let's do it" and then he'll immediately start blushing and stammering and he'll be like
"I--I didn't mean it like THAT--OWO I didn't MEAN to mention S*X..oh no frick frack")
*Author claims on Twitter protagonist is "strong female." Said strong female is so passive that it's actually (and I hate this word but have to use it anyway) toxic. It being mentioned three times that she lifts weights doesn't make her strong.
*So many pop-culture references that it makes me want to burn a building down (in Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga).
*In many ways this book feels like it's written for tweens because of the extensive pointless text conversations we see between protagonist and love interest that are literally just them exchanging GIFS. Like...I do not give a flying fuck if the protagonist sent a Barney GIF oh my Godddd who cares? Like all of those bulked up the book so badly and made me feel like I was reading something from the YA section. Just summarize in one sentence that they've been texting and talk about how it's making the characters feel, so it actually progresses the plot.
*This story could have been half the length, as other reviewers have pointed out. There is sooo much filler and unnecessary information that it made the story drag and made me feel fed up as a reader.
*The language often felt extremely fanfiction-y and melodramatic. Alisha meets Quentin and her knees nearly give out, and her stomach turns inside out. Girl are you okay??? I was expecting her to explode when Quentin kissed her.
*I really don't understand why Quentin likes or is chasing this woman who repeatedly told him throughout the story that she wasn't ready for a relationship and was too damaged to date him. Like I'm sorry but if someone tells you that shit over and over the move is not to continue chasing them, the move is to just say 'ok' and move on and date Bridget or whoever. I would understand if Quentin and Alisha had been in a relationship at that point because it's like ok maybe he knew she was self-sabotaging but the bottom line is that he DIDN'T and they never even established they were bf/gf and literally went on like 2.5 dates like you do NOT know someone well enough at that point to know what's good for them.
*Alisha throughout this book just comes across as a woman who wants to just work on her bakery and lift weights and vibe without a man. It's literally every other character who is pressuring her to 'get yourself a man girrrrrl' when she repeatedly says she isn't emotionally ready and has a duty to her family. This story's resolution is that she should not trust her own instincts that are telling her she is not ready and instead just bite the bullet and date some hot guy she has nothing but liking Jurassic Park in common with. It's honestly really antifeminist and kind of...not a great message. Just because she's thirty and has been single for seven years doesn't mean that she NEEDS to get a man. Maybe she's not done healing or isn't mature enough? She certainly seems that way, even at the end of the book.
*Truly I didn't feel like Quentin had a super distinct personality and it made it hard to find him dreamy. He just felt like Dream Boat Professor Guy (who sorta kinda has romantic baggage that's mentioned twice) but he didn't have any weird quirks or interesting personality traits that made him come to life. I think this made him feel like a shallowly developed character. I know he wants to impress his father too but idk it's just all so trope-y and stereotypical. There wasn't anything really special about him.
*This book almost would have been better written as a literary fiction bittersweet kind of thing, maybe about Alisha gaining her independence and realizing that she was trying to please others and put others before herself in dating Quentin, just like she always does. I feel like that would have felt more real. Quentin does not feel like an end-game love interest, he and Alisha are just at too different parts of their lives. That's not bad, it just would have worked better as this maybe more sweeping, covering many years, scientific dark academia magnum opus.
Anyway this author is not Bad per se this book just felt like a not super great execution. However it's an interesting enough concept that I could see her books getting better over the years. This author also definitely uses TikTok. That's just the vibe and it's not serving.
Oh also.
DYSTOPIA