Whose idea was it to pick this book for the readalong?? 😭

I really like the main story directly involving our main character(s), but…

WHO ARE ALL THESE RANDOM PEOPLE? WHO IS JEROME? WHO IS YOLANDA?

WHAT IS WITH THE CONSTANT TIMELINE JUMPS‽

I hate this narrative style so much, it is messy and confounding. 😭

The way I have to force myself to keep reading this feels illegal. Almost a hostage situation. But I never DNF a book and I will not start now.

I was just talking to my brother-in-law, and he told me he wrote a book. I was happy for him! That's an amazing accomplishment, and he's written books before so I knew it was something he enjoyed doing.

That is...until he told me that while his ideas were all his, he used AI to "pad out the chapters". His rationalization was that he would disclose that he used it, and that so many Amazon best-sellers are all AI-generated, and he was using it as an aide. While I think that him disclosing is the right thing, I wanted to address with him how AI use is criticized in literature today. He can still publish it, but he should understand that there is a specific type of criticism he would receive without even reading his book.

So, I would like a little input from people who are also in this bookish world. How IS AI viewed in literature?

Not sure how I feel about how the plot is moving forward in this book. The young main characters aren't making too many thought-driven actions. They are just going along with whatever older characters propel them towards. And I'm annoyed that so many of the older characters are pushing them places and to do things without explaining anything.