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A review by arablor
The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons
2.0
“perhaps we are all butterflies, and the world is our hurricane”
oh how it breaks my heart to do this since i love the author SO much, but this book was not what i expected.
i don’t think emmons understands how love works, or rather, when it happens. seriously. this is a reoccurring theme in both the otherworld and her debut novel. i was literally shocked to my core when i read a certain three words at only 38% into the book. i don’t know how much i’m allowed to share, but yeah. that’s not how love works at all. in three days, you don’t fall in love… you’re just horny. sorry. even he says they hardly know each other later on in what’s supposed to be a romantic scene. i was just yelling “YEAH. YOU DON’T!”
enter jack, the only character in this book who isn’t insufferable. jack’s the only one who reacts logically about papa. everyone else in the cast reacts cartoonishly empathetic towards papa and i’m like… why? even if he was a person who deserved to be defended, there’s no way in hell an outsider would feel that way after hearing about a dad who keeps his daughter on an uninhabited island. and the ENTIRE cast including his own family treats him terribly for whatever reason. at one point he’s forced to apologize when he did nothing wrong. i did not like neither his ending nor how he was treated throughout the novel.
orca, the main character, who i’d rather be an actual orca because ohmygod i did not like her. i’m not going to spoil the story, but i found myself sympathizing with someone who was supposed to be her villain, and i don’t believe that was the point at all. she’s the most basic betty but i’m supposed to believe she had two brothers fighting over her wildness and beauty. ( the older love interest refers to her as pure and unpolluted, and i believe i should be rewarded for continuing to read the book after that.) i cant believe, in the year 2023, there’s still age gaps like this being promoted. in reality, it usually doesn’t end in rainbows and babies for the girl, but like… a lifetime of trauma and misery to unpack. she couldn’t have made adam in his early twenties so i could SOMEWHAT not feel like he should be banned from my local high school? there’s a scene where a character goes into deep monologue about how she eats pizza shamelessly and that somehow makes her not like the other girls !!
oh how it breaks my heart to do this since i love the author SO much, but this book was not what i expected.
i don’t think emmons understands how love works, or rather, when it happens. seriously. this is a reoccurring theme in both the otherworld and her debut novel. i was literally shocked to my core when i read a certain three words at only 38% into the book. i don’t know how much i’m allowed to share, but yeah. that’s not how love works at all. in three days, you don’t fall in love… you’re just horny. sorry. even he says they hardly know each other later on in what’s supposed to be a romantic scene. i was just yelling “YEAH. YOU DON’T!”
enter jack, the only character in this book who isn’t insufferable. jack’s the only one who reacts logically about papa. everyone else in the cast reacts cartoonishly empathetic towards papa and i’m like… why? even if he was a person who deserved to be defended, there’s no way in hell an outsider would feel that way after hearing about a dad who keeps his daughter on an uninhabited island. and the ENTIRE cast including his own family treats him terribly for whatever reason. at one point he’s forced to apologize when he did nothing wrong. i did not like neither his ending nor how he was treated throughout the novel.
orca, the main character, who i’d rather be an actual orca because ohmygod i did not like her. i’m not going to spoil the story, but i found myself sympathizing with someone who was supposed to be her villain, and i don’t believe that was the point at all. she’s the most basic betty but i’m supposed to believe she had two brothers fighting over her wildness and beauty. ( the older love interest refers to her as pure and unpolluted, and i believe i should be rewarded for continuing to read the book after that.) i cant believe, in the year 2023, there’s still age gaps like this being promoted. in reality, it usually doesn’t end in rainbows and babies for the girl, but like… a lifetime of trauma and misery to unpack. she couldn’t have made adam in his early twenties so i could SOMEWHAT not feel like he should be banned from my local high school? there’s a scene where a character goes into deep monologue about how she eats pizza shamelessly and that somehow makes her not like the other girls !!