Take a photo of a barcode or cover
charleym_reads 's review for:
How to End a Love Story
by Yulin Kuang
Trigger warning: suicide and panic attacks
This was a beautiful story of forgiveness, falling in love with the person you least expect, and figuring out what you want to do in your life. But it was also very traumatic - I don’t think it handled suicide as delicately as it should have, and it made panic attacks seem easy to overcome by just counting to five or getting a hug.
I loved Grant’s ability to wear his heart on his sleeve without shame. He was that perfect blend of showing his emotions and still being strong. I liked the acknowledgment of his lingering trauma from the crash, because it felt genuine and shaped who he was. Helen was extremely closed off and even being in her head for more than half the book, I didn’t really feel like I ever got to see her open up. I understand why she was closed off, but I think there was too little growth from her throughout the book, up until the time jumps at the end, so mostly I was mad at her.
I will say, I think this would’ve been better as a closed door romance. There was really no explicit spice, but what was there felt disingenuous and almost overshadowed the intensity of the plot.
The audiobook narration by Katherine Chin and Andrew Eiden was really good.
This was a beautiful story of forgiveness, falling in love with the person you least expect, and figuring out what you want to do in your life. But it was also very traumatic - I don’t think it handled suicide as delicately as it should have, and it made panic attacks seem easy to overcome by just counting to five or getting a hug.
I loved Grant’s ability to wear his heart on his sleeve without shame. He was that perfect blend of showing his emotions and still being strong. I liked the acknowledgment of his lingering trauma from the crash, because it felt genuine and shaped who he was. Helen was extremely closed off and even being in her head for more than half the book, I didn’t really feel like I ever got to see her open up. I understand why she was closed off, but I think there was too little growth from her throughout the book, up until the time jumps at the end, so mostly I was mad at her.
I will say, I think this would’ve been better as a closed door romance. There was really no explicit spice, but what was there felt disingenuous and almost overshadowed the intensity of the plot.
The audiobook narration by Katherine Chin and Andrew Eiden was really good.