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mchoy004 's review for:
Red String Theory
by Lauren Kung Jessen
Respectfully, VERY respectfully, this book made me ANGRY.
Sigh, I thought I would enjoy this because I love BOTH the red string of fate myth AND the empirical nature of science. I think the idea of fate is fascinating given the abundance of decisions that dictate the progression of our lives and the people we are in proximity to. Perhaps that’s why I could not get behind this book - there was a refusal on both MC’s part to see how much fate and free will intermingle. That fate and free will can operate together and that one’s existence does not negate the other. It ANNOYED ME TO NO END THIS WAS A LESSON(?) LEARNED AT THE END OF THE BOOK.
This book took all my favorite romance tropes and made them drab and lackluster. The main characters felt very one dimensional and stereotypical to their career: “extroverted excessively optimistic art girl with daddy issues my art is my only personality” meets “EQ of 0 emotionally unavailable but secretly soft control freak boy engineer”. The “fated” interactions were too unrealistic and felt forced and cringey. So many parts of this book just didn’t make sense… is NASA really investing in a random girls art residency, giving her access to their lead engineer and allowing her to use actual confidential space resources. Like, come onnnnn
If we are going for true delulu-ness, fate is SOFT, its is graceful, it is SUBTLE. This was very much missing, and I think the obvious “fated” interactions contrasted by the lack of chemistry between the two characters made this story jarring and forced.
I felt like there were no real, believable conflicts in this book, which made this book sooo long.
To end on a positive note, I did enjoy the multiracial representation and the inclusion of various chinese myths/traditions to further discuss the role of fate in our lives.
Sigh, I thought I would enjoy this because I love BOTH the red string of fate myth AND the empirical nature of science. I think the idea of fate is fascinating given the abundance of decisions that dictate the progression of our lives and the people we are in proximity to. Perhaps that’s why I could not get behind this book - there was a refusal on both MC’s part to see how much fate and free will intermingle. That fate and free will can operate together and that one’s existence does not negate the other. It ANNOYED ME TO NO END THIS WAS A LESSON(?) LEARNED AT THE END OF THE BOOK.
This book took all my favorite romance tropes and made them drab and lackluster. The main characters felt very one dimensional and stereotypical to their career: “extroverted excessively optimistic art girl with daddy issues my art is my only personality” meets “EQ of 0 emotionally unavailable but secretly soft control freak boy engineer”. The “fated” interactions were too unrealistic and felt forced and cringey. So many parts of this book just didn’t make sense… is NASA really investing in a random girls art residency, giving her access to their lead engineer and allowing her to use actual confidential space resources. Like, come onnnnn
If we are going for true delulu-ness, fate is SOFT, its is graceful, it is SUBTLE. This was very much missing, and I think the obvious “fated” interactions contrasted by the lack of chemistry between the two characters made this story jarring and forced.
I felt like there were no real, believable conflicts in this book, which made this book sooo long.
To end on a positive note, I did enjoy the multiracial representation and the inclusion of various chinese myths/traditions to further discuss the role of fate in our lives.