It Ends with Us

Bits of this book made me sob because, very unfortunately, they struck a chord. Usually that's a good thing and books that make me feel the feels generally get high ratings. But when it comes to abuse (child, spousal), I think I'd rather the chord remain unstruck. But the “it was okay” rating isn't because it was too real, too intense, because those are good things even if they're difficult. It wasn't because I felt manipulated, as Chelsea pointed out, although maybe I should have. It was because all the stuff surrounding the abuse, leading up to it and peripheral to it, caused a lot of eye rolling. Kelly said it pretty perfectly, I think: first Atlas and then Ryle were “the most perfect perfection that ever perfected.” It's really hard to relate to these picture-perfect characters, even if they didn't have ridiculous names (although I did find the whole “Issa” thing adorable). Maybe The Message™ was too heavy-handed, I don't know, but something (or perhaps many somethings) fell flat.

¯_(ツ)_/¯