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A review by nickcarravay
We Can't Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon
3.0
There is a lot to like about this book, even some parts to love:
Sex-positivity for high schoolers. Diverse characters with backgrounds, sexual preferences, and religious upbringings. Normalizing mental health and its meaningful and necessary presence in our lives. Parents not being the perfect demi-gods we place on pedistals as children. (I believe in this one with my whole being). All of these are great and important and handled in a lovely way.
I liked Tarek for a variety of reasons, he is sensitive and open, and he puts her needs and emotional well-being before his own quite a few times. He likes “non-traditionally masculine things,” which I wish were not a bonus point, but that isn’t a character flaw of his, as it is a societal flaw to assign meaning when there is none.
I didn’t find Quinn compeling. I found the storyline about a person with OCD important to read. I also believe that younger audiences benefit from reading stories that validate their choice not to know at eigtheen how to spend the rest of their lives. There is so much pressure placed on us to have all the answers all of the time, it’s nice to have a lead not know.
And yet this story didn’t draw me in. I floated in and out of it. I’ve come to expect to be submerged into a Rachel Lynn Solomon world and this one didn’t grab me. Didn’t pull me in so completely, that I had no choice but to keep reading.
You should still read it. Maybe it will make you long for Seattle summers or orgasmic wedding cake or the summer after high school, maybe it won’t. But you should still try and let me know how you felt because your feelings are valid and you should always share them.
Sex-positivity for high schoolers. Diverse characters with backgrounds, sexual preferences, and religious upbringings. Normalizing mental health and its meaningful and necessary presence in our lives. Parents not being the perfect demi-gods we place on pedistals as children. (I believe in this one with my whole being). All of these are great and important and handled in a lovely way.
I liked Tarek for a variety of reasons, he is sensitive and open, and he puts her needs and emotional well-being before his own quite a few times. He likes “non-traditionally masculine things,” which I wish were not a bonus point, but that isn’t a character flaw of his, as it is a societal flaw to assign meaning when there is none.
I didn’t find Quinn compeling. I found the storyline about a person with OCD important to read. I also believe that younger audiences benefit from reading stories that validate their choice not to know at eigtheen how to spend the rest of their lives. There is so much pressure placed on us to have all the answers all of the time, it’s nice to have a lead not know.
And yet this story didn’t draw me in. I floated in and out of it. I’ve come to expect to be submerged into a Rachel Lynn Solomon world and this one didn’t grab me. Didn’t pull me in so completely, that I had no choice but to keep reading.
You should still read it. Maybe it will make you long for Seattle summers or orgasmic wedding cake or the summer after high school, maybe it won’t. But you should still try and let me know how you felt because your feelings are valid and you should always share them.