tessareads_ 's review for:

Red String Theory by Lauren Kung Jessen

2.75

hopeful informative lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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All books ask you to suspend your disbelief a little but this book was too much. Rooney's entire personality is that she believes in the red string of fate that she makes art with red string and only wears red string. Why would NASA choose someone who made one instilation and only uses red string as resident artist? Why didn't they do applications?

Rooney becomes so famous putting some red string on the hollywood sign that she manages to make $20,000 in a few weeks. This is apparently headline news. Her whole thing is that she doesn't want to be a nepo baby but essentially that is what makes her successful because if she wasnt the daughter of an artist then there would have been nothing to report on.

Rooney basically only talks about fate. I would hate to talk to her in real life. She has literally one friend, who has so little going on her life she relocates with Rooney for no real reason as she was barely in the book. She owns a gallery. That's all we know about her. Jack, is quite a sweet character. For some reason he has no friends, despite being a lot more likeable than Rooney.

The little details about NASA were interesting, I haven't fact checked about the artist in residence but I love the idea of it. 

The characters had so little chemistry, they told us they liked each other but they didn't seem to. I think it would actually have been a better story if she believed they were soulmates because of signs and then realised they worked better as friends.

The break up towards the end was angled like it's because they had different beliefs about fate and not the actual valid reason that it would affect their jobs.

I did quite like the ending. Although again, highly unrealistic.