matchamaker 's review for:

The Library of Borrowed Hearts by Lucy Gilmore

1.0

medium-paced

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I was so excited to pick this up, having loved The Lonely Hearts Book Club, but was so deeply disappointed I’m actually angry about it. It was by turns cloying and irritating: the plot was convenient, the book annotations were actually defacement, the characters lacked depth and the distinctive voices afforded to those in LHBC, and the realities of the lives of abandoned and parentified children were paid the barest of lip service. (Chloe works six-hour shifts at the library but doesn’t have a second job, really?)

I don’t like how Chloe’s community prior to Jasper’s involvement (whose turnaround was staggeringly sudden and poorly supported) was completely written off as though it didn’t exist. And we’re meant to forgive Zach’s horrific manipulation just like that? Because he’s… hot? You cannot be serious.