In Five Years

Honestly, this was not for me.

Personally, I didn't like the way the book was structured or the writing. That's not to say that all chapters were “bad”, as there were a few that I honestly thought to be great, filled with personal/emotional moments. Nevertheless, I couldn't stand the protagonist for 90% of this. Call me however you want as well as tell me that I couldn't possibly understand her, but from my perspective, she didn't have personal growth until literally the last part, and that's because it's forced on her.

Just take the fact that she put off her engagement for four and a half years and then wanted to marry in a rush just because she finally met the guy she was supposed to hook up with. She went to therapy once, then again after the time skip, and she admits to withholding information about her dream, to then complain that even the therapist didn't help. Then, she doesn't have the courage to break off her engagement, having her boyfriend do so for them; when he said “I can't believe I'm the one that has to do this”, took the words out of my mouth. That's right, you don't have to do this, she's the one whose supposed to. Furthermore, she's rather controlling, but many times not in a positive way, not even when characters try to pass it as a joke.

I think the only thing I liked about her was her taste in wine and how good of a friend she was.

Then, her friend (whom I genuinely liked) becomes cancer-positive literally halfway through the story, and although I didn't like the protagonist, their interactions were actually very touching. Greg is an amazing guy, and I felt the most for him. I found it rather irritating the times when the protagonist constantly antagonized him even during her friend's treatment because...I guess she believes the worst in people?

Overall, as a book that's marketed as the “most heartbreaking novel of the year”, I was rather underwhelmed. Even the time travel aspect feels underwhelming because, even though it makes for a great parallel which I actually enjoyed reading in the penultimate chapter, I didn't understand how it was supposed to affect the overall story. Like, if you take away the time travel, the story plays out exactly as it never happened.

P.D. I didn't even touch on the blatant clichés (dancing to Frank Sinatra when an old couple was already dancing, etc.)