A review by kaitburesh
Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

2.0

2.75. Overall, this was a very "meh" read for me. I really enjoyed the character of Dave for the first half or so. I never once enjoyed Julia as a character - she was every quirky girl trope rolled into one hot mess of a character. From having two dads, to biological mom abandonment issues, to a nondescript level of wealth that allows her to completely damage an entire house and car without consequence, to the sassy sarcasm that makes her somewhat of a social outcast, to a unique hair color that physically sets her apart, and her complete ignorance of the best friend being in love with her until she hears he likes someone else. She was just an absolute nightmare to read about and when her and Dave got together on the beach was when I questioned what was even going on in this book. The premise was very intriguing and like I said I enjoyed the first half where we really got to know Dave - but I felt like the second half fell so flat. Instead of being let into Dave's thoughts, we were just kind of shown how everything wrapped itself up sort of but not really at all. We got so much of his thought processes in the beginning and even some of Julia's in her solo section, but by the time it was their joint section the action just all sort of vommitted itself across the pages without any real emotional context to make me care about all the "heartbreak" taking place. It was almost like the last 80 or so pages were "oh and now I have to end this story so I guess we'll just have another breakup and add a makeup and leave it on an aloof note with quirky girl showing up to prom in jeans and barefoot" Is it obvious I can't stand Julia? Alas, I am left underwhelmed and glad this was a library pick.