Review by goodmornindreamer - Love and Other Words

goodmornindreamer 's review for:

Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren

3.0

emotional lighthearted reflective slow-paced

3⭐️

I truly thought I would enjoy this book after hearing nothing but great things about it, however this book just didn't hit right for me. I struggled to really like our characters for a majority of the book and didn't really start liking them until halfway through. Elliot really rubbed me wrong with how blunt and pushy his questions were when first meeting Macey who was dealing with a lot of grief after losing her mom. I did feel for Macey, but also felt frustrated with a lot of her miscommunication throughout the whole book.

Additionally there was another part of the book that really bothered me but will be hidden for spoilers...

I was incredibly disappointed with how this book handled SA and rape. During the last 70ish pages of the book, we finally learn what caused Macey and Elliot to have a falling-out. Macey goes to find Elliot at a house party after not feeling great about how their phone conversation ended. She is approached by his two best friends one kind of pushing her to search for Elliot while the other saying that she should go home and they'll take care of Elliot and bring him home later. So OBVIOUSLY they both are aware of what has happened but neither has done anything. Macey goes upstairs to find that Elliot is not only passed out, but his pants and boxers are at his ankles and Emma (his friend/someone he's shared kisses with) is naked and lying on top of him. Macey believes that Elliot has cheated on her and storms out of the house. Flashback to present time, Elliot apologizes for what happened and the whole time it's looked at as he cheated on her. However, we learn that Elliot truly had NO MEMORY of what happened and during the whole event he fully believed he was having sex with Macey. Emma was not there when he woke up after that night and his friends had never told him what happened. So he believed that Macey had sex with him and then disappeared and was no longer talking to him. AND years later when he finally is able to be intimate with another woman, he has a break down (obviously a panic attack). So much happened in these pages and the topic was brushed over too quickly when so much time could've been spent on these conversations.

Content Warnings