Digging In

Too Much Drama Swept Away For A Fluffy Ending

This book is... alright, I guess, but nowhere near what it has the potential to be. It's almost comically absurd how many things go wrong in the main character's life - some of them her own fault, as she is a deeply flawed, selfish, and vindictive woman who's borderline cruel to her son - but only one or two have any form of resolution. What's more, all of the resolutions felt like fluffy, cheap bandages plastered onto gaping wounds.

The best comparison I have is to call this the book version of a Lifetime movie. Yes, those can be a bit of a guilty pleasure, but they require turning your brain off and not acknowledging how terrible half the characters are as human beings or how unrealistically extreme drama is swept away like nothing for the sake of a fluffy ending.

There's a very hostile work environment, fixed not by consultation with HR (in fact, there may not even be a human resources department) or the law but by extremely contrived circumstances. A stalker creep doesn't change his ways, the object of his affection just decides to begin trusting him. A woman is basically annoyed into giving people a chance to work for/with her, even though she wanted nothing to do with them. Someone very nice does a horrible thing and is instantly forgiven. The main character treats other people like garbage - including her own son - and never truly has a moment of self-realization; she just treats them slightly less like garbage suddenly and everyone accepts that. I could go on, but to do so would veer into spoiler territory.

I didn't like how the teenage son was treated like a child nor how his mother basically bullied him for being traumatized instead of fighting for his right to autonomy. Seriously, he's afraid to drive because his dad died in a terrible car crash, and instead of being a normal, empathic human his mother bullies and belittles and pushes him to take driver's ed. Apparently, he'll not be allowed to graduate without it because the school requires the course - which is extremely ridiculous and nonsensical in a world where more and more people choose ride shares or public transportation either for financial reasons or to help the environment - and instead of fighting this injustice, she tells her son he has no valid reason not to do it. Because to Hades with his intense trauma, I guess.

Meanwhile, she vehemently protests the homeowner's association she agreed to when buying the house. See, this whole story focuses on a garden, but that garden was just a solution to a bigger problem: Paige, our main character, gets drunk and starts digging holes in her yard. This reduces curb appeal and gets her in trouble with the neighbourhood association. And instead of fixing it, she gets vindictive. Where's that fight when she should be defending her son's autonomy and right to graduate based on grades? Nowhere. Just like it's nowhere when the new boss touches her without consent (condescendingly, not sexually, but still), behaves in slightly sexist and totally ageist ways, and creates an extremely hostile work environment. But, man, those people who just want her to abide by rules she agreed to follow, they're the bad people who need to be fought!

It's just... too much. She's forty-something and acts like a selfish, spoilt brat. She even mentally tortures an old man just because he's rude. Being ‘in the head' of a character like this for an entire book was exhausting. I kept reading out of curiosity, hoping to see a good redemption arc, but every time Paige appeared to make progress she'd end up regressing within a couple pages. There was no true self-realization or growth as a person, which made this book rather annoying to me.

I don't hate it, but I also don't particularly like it, and that's a shame because I liked the premise and saw a ton of potential with the storyline. But I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles. Or how the tomato falls from its vine.