A review by logsbooklog
Like Real People Do by E.L. Massey

hopeful fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

a cute story with good representation but also deeply wish fulfillment that doesn’t even pretend to try to be realistic. it feels borderline detached from reality how simple everything goes for these characters which can be nice but just isn’t very interesting. also the writing is not the strongest; the book is third person but seemingly not comfortable with this fact as some chapters seem like they were made for a first person book with perspective changes and then molded into this clunky third person. the writing is also very tell-dont-show with so many sentences being word for word “*character* was *emotion*.” instead of just describing how they seem. i did overall think it was cute in a very uncomplicated way but the writing and rushed, unexplored premise really took me out of it.

the side characters are also super one dimensional and borderline stereotypical, particularly kuzy the stereotypical friendly russian with a thick accent who gets joked about having mafia ties multiple times. it’s not really bad enough to be insensitive it’s just lazy more than anything. the social media and reference humor is also as out of touch as ever, and the general fanfic-y tumblrness of it all is regularly groan inducing.

it’s possible, likely even, that my standards are too high for a silly romance that’s clearly former fanfic, but i really think there’s some good ideas here that could be vastly improved upon but go squandered by writing that’s weak and pandery
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