Scan barcode
A review by whatthedeuce
Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly
emotional
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
It was a decent book, overall, but I really felt it went on a bit too long that within the last 90 pages or so I started to find the characters’ handwringing and angst pretty tedious. The angst was understandable for the most part but still drawn out wayyy too long for my taste. The book started off so strongly for me, but the characters started getting on my nerves about halfway through, which I find often happens when the hookup starts too early in the story.
Also London being a rich kid and Dahlia not directly addressing them about her not wanting London paying for anything really irked me. Like they had a whole ass rental car just sitting in a garage for like a month while Dahlia’s all freaked over how she’ll pay rent when she gets home, and then you can tell she’s uneasy or annoyed when London offers to pay for stuff so casually cuz they’re from an affluent family, and yet all it merits is “Let’s find free things to do in LA” but no direct discussion. Why even make one lead character privileged as a contrast to the other if that wasn’t gonna actually factor into anything? It was just to show how noble London is with wanting to set up a nonprofit cuz well, they don’t the damn money! Also I get Dahlia wanting to step into a more confident version of herself, but she was definitely giving some manic pixie dream girl energy that was so grating after awhile.
Also London being a rich kid and Dahlia not directly addressing them about her not wanting London paying for anything really irked me. Like they had a whole ass rental car just sitting in a garage for like a month while Dahlia’s all freaked over how she’ll pay rent when she gets home, and then you can tell she’s uneasy or annoyed when London offers to pay for stuff so casually cuz they’re from an affluent family, and yet all it merits is “Let’s find free things to do in LA” but no direct discussion. Why even make one lead character privileged as a contrast to the other if that wasn’t gonna actually factor into anything? It was just to show how noble London is with wanting to set up a nonprofit cuz well, they don’t the damn money! Also I get Dahlia wanting to step into a more confident version of herself, but she was definitely giving some manic pixie dream girl energy that was so grating after awhile.