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A review by sarahrahrah
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Blergh, the story was cute enough, if a bit formulaic in the tropes used, but in the end this was majorly disappointing. There were far too many moments where the writing felt overly try-hard with current references or verbal tics that felt jarring and took me out of the story. And too often, the references were so specific but not that culturally universal that I either ignored and read past them, feeling annoyed at my ignorance, or had to stop reading entirely to go look stuff up. I shouldn't have to be googling things for a beach read! It got to the point that about a quarter of the way through, I went back and skim-re-read to sticky note every single instance of these obnoxious references, and continued mark the rest as I finished the book. There were A LOT of sticky notes:
Pg. 5 "I'm young and know how to wear a T-shirt without a bra. That's at least half of what's required, right?"
Pg. 34 "She described it as 'the nose Jenny Nelson wanted and didn't get.'" I have no idea who this is and Google shows results for a painter or a physics professor?
Pg. 38 "Unless something is on fire or I think I've just spotted Zac Efron at Target--for the record, it's never him--I don't call her."
Pg. 42 "...which holds a beautiful set of bright blue RIMOWA luggage..." Just relying on a brand name isn't the best descriptive writing (although I could just be totally clueless of RIMOWA since I breezed past it with other luxury brands)
Pg. 43 "'Vivi. This cost him Baby Driver money." I can infer what this means, but I feel like Baby Driver isn't so obviously ingrained in the culture that you can use it to indicate exorbitant richness? Idk, I've never seen it and am only sorta aware of what it was about
Pg. 64 "The vibe is very White Lotus--all of them stand shoulder to shoulder, smiling in welcome, wearing matching khaki shorts and white polo shirts..." I know White Lotus was a big deal and "everyone" saw it (I didn't) and was talking about it for a while, but this feels like a cop-out. They describe a little, but lean heavily on the reference driving the description. Also, in ten years time will readers remember or know White Lotus? Idk
Pg. 68 "Houston, we have a problem(atic man)." Okay, punny therapy speak whatever
Pg. 69 "If there was a camera nearby, I'd be looking straight into it. I am flabbergasted." Ugggghhhhh annoying Jim from the Office reference. It's cutesy and clever, but like in a tweet, not a published novel.
Pg. 73 "There's a real Isle Esme feel to the decor (if you know, you know)..." WELL I DONT KNOW, SO NOW IM IRRITATED! But then it turns out I did know - it's from Twilight. But I shouldn't have to stop in the middle of a sentence to Google this. Also my initial thought was that it was maybe the name of the island in The Menu (which I never saw but am kinda aware of) or something which is an infinitely more interesting of an iykyk than freaking Twilight.
Pg. 74 "If I had to choose between this shower and a date with Harry Styles...I would choose Harry Styles, but I'd hesitate." Yep, okay, everyone is a fan girl for Harry, how relatable, we get it.
Pg. 94 "'I would say we love a short king, but in your dad's case, I'm not sure we do.'" I guess I cant be sooo mad at this because it is dialogue, but the use of the trendy Internet speak again makes me think this is a book that will forever be stuck in the 2024 TikTok era
Pg. 131 "My cheeks are still warm from his praise when he introduces me to Danielle Xiu, the congressional aide and avid Barbie collector... I notice the wedding ring on her finger. 'Where is your Ken? Or your Barbie?' ... I wrap my arms around West's torso. 'My Ken's job this week is Beach.' 'And Drinks'' he says..." What a weirdly specific detail to include about a non-character we meet once, JUST to be able to make a Ken joke ughhh
Pg. 199 "'He gave seed money to a few friends of Alex's when they wanted to start a little website called Twitter--I refuse to call it X.'" Har har it's the same point everyone on the Internet has already joked about
Pg. 206 "'Hey, bestie, same.'" This one I also forgive since she's speaking to a preteen, but still it feels verrry cringe and trying too hard to invoke more TikTok speak
I stared at this sentence way too long, grumbling at the sentence fragment: "'You're right.' He says after a few quiet moments. 'Thats probably easiest....'" There needs to be a comma either after right or after moments. Which bit did he say after a few quiet minutes? And why am I so worked up about this?! lol
This is a small and stupid noticing, but maybe an editor should have caught it or they should have explained what they meant differently (I think it was included to show they were safe traipsing about in the dark jungle, but idk). On pg 96: "something flies overhead and I remember the conversation material saying we might see fox bats at night, and to simply leave them alone if we do." But on pg 221 when they're sneaking around on their own, "No mammals live on the island, but the trees are full of waning birdcalls and the odd flapping of wings." I felt a bit crazy typing "are bats mammals" in the search bar, but again it was enough of a detail to take me out of my reading.
Pg. 227 "'I guess now is when I tell you the truth,' I say with quiet solemnity. 'You may have noticed that I sparkle in the sunlight. That my skin is like marble.' I pause. 'This is the skin of a killer.'" More Twilight. Cool.
Also, why does she always refer to her father, who she is very close too, by his first and last name. It didn't bother me for most of the book because it mostly read as a sympathetic "if only he had grown up with a David Green like I did" kind of thing. But then at some point she literally addresses him as David Green while they're having a heart to heart?
The last sticky note I marked is unfair since it's from the acknowledgements, but I still had to roll my eyes at how much it cements this book to the exact moment in time it was published. "So, for any new or aspiring writers out there, please know this: thirty books in and we sometimes still fumble the ball (that's a football reference, but we all know that now--thanks, Taylor)."
Perhaps all of this is too nit-picky, but that's how much it distracted from my reading experience. This book will NOT age well because of all the pop culture references and internet speak sprinkled throughout - internet trends last like 15 min and then we're on to the next thing. Even the Barbie "his job is beach this week" thing already felt dusty (which yeah, I'm reading this in May 2024 which is close enough to a year after Barbie premiered)
I'm sad because the past 2-3 recent releases from CL have been chock full of these types of annoying references , but I read past them because I've always loved how well they write romance. Also, it was acceptable in The True Love Experiment because that was meant to be a cheeky love letter to romance and pop culture and fandoms, and it matched the character, so it was much easier to breeze past without it jarringly taking me out of the story. But now that this is clearly becoming the trend in their writing, I'm afraid the era of loving my once favorite romance duo is over. It just reads as so cringy and out of touch (and this is coming from a very cringy and out of touch person myself).
Finally, I can't even get into this, but Goddamn.
Pg. 5 "I'm young and know how to wear a T-shirt without a bra. That's at least half of what's required, right?"
Pg. 34 "She described it as 'the nose Jenny Nelson wanted and didn't get.'" I have no idea who this is and Google shows results for a painter or a physics professor?
Pg. 38 "Unless something is on fire or I think I've just spotted Zac Efron at Target--for the record, it's never him--I don't call her."
Pg. 42 "...which holds a beautiful set of bright blue RIMOWA luggage..." Just relying on a brand name isn't the best descriptive writing (although I could just be totally clueless of RIMOWA since I breezed past it with other luxury brands)
Pg. 43 "'Vivi. This cost him Baby Driver money." I can infer what this means, but I feel like Baby Driver isn't so obviously ingrained in the culture that you can use it to indicate exorbitant richness? Idk, I've never seen it and am only sorta aware of what it was about
Pg. 64 "The vibe is very White Lotus--all of them stand shoulder to shoulder, smiling in welcome, wearing matching khaki shorts and white polo shirts..." I know White Lotus was a big deal and "everyone" saw it (I didn't) and was talking about it for a while, but this feels like a cop-out. They describe a little, but lean heavily on the reference driving the description. Also, in ten years time will readers remember or know White Lotus? Idk
Pg. 68 "Houston, we have a problem(atic man)." Okay, punny therapy speak whatever
Pg. 69 "If there was a camera nearby, I'd be looking straight into it. I am flabbergasted." Ugggghhhhh annoying Jim from the Office reference. It's cutesy and clever, but like in a tweet, not a published novel.
Pg. 73 "There's a real Isle Esme feel to the decor (if you know, you know)..." WELL I DONT KNOW, SO NOW IM IRRITATED! But then it turns out I did know - it's from Twilight. But I shouldn't have to stop in the middle of a sentence to Google this. Also my initial thought was that it was maybe the name of the island in The Menu (which I never saw but am kinda aware of) or something which is an infinitely more interesting of an iykyk than freaking Twilight.
Pg. 74 "If I had to choose between this shower and a date with Harry Styles...I would choose Harry Styles, but I'd hesitate." Yep, okay, everyone is a fan girl for Harry, how relatable, we get it.
Pg. 94 "'I would say we love a short king, but in your dad's case, I'm not sure we do.'" I guess I cant be sooo mad at this because it is dialogue, but the use of the trendy Internet speak again makes me think this is a book that will forever be stuck in the 2024 TikTok era
Pg. 131 "My cheeks are still warm from his praise when he introduces me to Danielle Xiu, the congressional aide and avid Barbie collector... I notice the wedding ring on her finger. 'Where is your Ken? Or your Barbie?' ... I wrap my arms around West's torso. 'My Ken's job this week is Beach.' 'And Drinks'' he says..." What a weirdly specific detail to include about a non-character we meet once, JUST to be able to make a Ken joke ughhh
Pg. 199 "'He gave seed money to a few friends of Alex's when they wanted to start a little website called Twitter--I refuse to call it X.'" Har har it's the same point everyone on the Internet has already joked about
Pg. 206 "'Hey, bestie, same.'" This one I also forgive since she's speaking to a preteen, but still it feels verrry cringe and trying too hard to invoke more TikTok speak
I stared at this sentence way too long, grumbling at the sentence fragment: "'You're right.' He says after a few quiet moments. 'Thats probably easiest....'" There needs to be a comma either after right or after moments. Which bit did he say after a few quiet minutes? And why am I so worked up about this?! lol
This is a small and stupid noticing, but maybe an editor should have caught it or they should have explained what they meant differently (I think it was included to show they were safe traipsing about in the dark jungle, but idk). On pg 96: "something flies overhead and I remember the conversation material saying we might see fox bats at night, and to simply leave them alone if we do." But on pg 221 when they're sneaking around on their own, "No mammals live on the island, but the trees are full of waning birdcalls and the odd flapping of wings." I felt a bit crazy typing "are bats mammals" in the search bar, but again it was enough of a detail to take me out of my reading.
Pg. 227 "'I guess now is when I tell you the truth,' I say with quiet solemnity. 'You may have noticed that I sparkle in the sunlight. That my skin is like marble.' I pause. 'This is the skin of a killer.'" More Twilight. Cool.
Also, why does she always refer to her father, who she is very close too, by his first and last name. It didn't bother me for most of the book because it mostly read as a sympathetic "if only he had grown up with a David Green like I did" kind of thing. But then at some point she literally addresses him as David Green while they're having a heart to heart?
The last sticky note I marked is unfair since it's from the acknowledgements, but I still had to roll my eyes at how much it cements this book to the exact moment in time it was published. "So, for any new or aspiring writers out there, please know this: thirty books in and we sometimes still fumble the ball (that's a football reference, but we all know that now--thanks, Taylor)."
Perhaps all of this is too nit-picky, but that's how much it distracted from my reading experience. This book will NOT age well because of all the pop culture references and internet speak sprinkled throughout - internet trends last like 15 min and then we're on to the next thing. Even the Barbie "his job is beach this week" thing already felt dusty (which yeah, I'm reading this in May 2024 which is close enough to a year after Barbie premiered)
I'm sad because the past 2-3 recent releases from CL have been chock full of these types of annoying references , but I read past them because I've always loved how well they write romance. Also, it was acceptable in The True Love Experiment because that was meant to be a cheeky love letter to romance and pop culture and fandoms, and it matched the character, so it was much easier to breeze past without it jarringly taking me out of the story. But now that this is clearly becoming the trend in their writing, I'm afraid the era of loving my once favorite romance duo is over. It just reads as so cringy and out of touch (and this is coming from a very cringy and out of touch person myself).
Finally, I can't even get into this, but Goddamn.