A review by happyeverabigail
How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book holds a lot of well written scenes and sections. In a way that sometimes felt fragmented but I stuck it out and it does come back together. Helen and Grant’s history is complicated in a way that can’t be tropified. He was at the scene of her sister’s suicide and yet it’s not like he had any kind of relationship friendship or otherwise with her sister prior, it was a random chance of events in a small town. So it’s a weird kind of baggage to be a person you associate a very tragic event with but then have to work with 10ish years later but then also fall in love with?? Some parts of their romantic and spicy scenes felt like a different story because of this and I was admittedly feeling a little 4 star-y but then the last 30% really brings this all back together and the writing room setting of Hollywood was so vivid and interesting. This truly is a great book. 

Not to self insert but the FMC was a bit autistic coded at the beginning when it came to navigating the social aspects of the writers room and life in general and I got so excited for potential rep. This unfortunately was a bit forgotten. It still was very relatable and has value Helen’s initial seriousness and the way her brain works to cope with that but like I mentioned it’s not really a plot point after that, her mental inner monologue is more influenced by unprocessed trauma, still really impactful. 
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