ok I have a lot of opinions about this book but let’s start with the positives: it was honestly a very fun and light read. It’s very much your typical hate-to-love romance with miscommunication and misunderstandings and at times very absurd but I also think that’s what made it so entertaining. I was always expecting something ridiculous to happen to add fire to the drama and see where the characters would take it, and how that’d impact Joonie as someone in the middle of a romance but also someone on a journey.

Along with Joonie’s story, we’re given excerpts of the romantasy book that Joonie’s life revolves around - A Tale of Salt Water & Secrets - and I’m not gonna lie, there was a point where I was a lot more invested in this story than of the main character. There’s an element of satire in the romantasy sections, with even the author saying she’s choosing to parody these parts, and using every common and cliche trope we’re used to seeing in fantasy romance books that make these so popular, and it’s this absurdity that made reading these sections so fun.

With the main story of the book… I just didn’t feel the same. I was very hopeful with the author’s note, where Iman Hariri-Kia mentions the discrimination that romance readers get, how they have this awful reputation that they only read for smut, that it’s not real reading and that romance readers are delusional, when in reality romance novels can be a way to escape but also for people to understand themselves and their sexuality when their own education fails to help in that, which I agree with. However, the author fails to make Joonie follow these lines and instead turns her into the stereotype she’s trying to go against. She’s delusional and obsessed and a crazy fan, which until here I wasn’t minding, it’s a very realistic portray of some people in fandoms and that’s completely fine, it was even interesting how the author decided to lean into that aspect, but it’s the actions she takes and the way she thinks that take her to an absurd level.

You can’t make your character complain that people don’t take her seriously because they think she can’t distinguish fiction from reality and then make her take actions where she does not, in fact, know where the line is between fiction and reality. She’s constantly comparing her life to the book she’s obsessed with, how the people in her life parallel with the characters, I mean she’s literally stalking someone that she doesn’t know and that the person doesn’t know her just because it inspired her favorite character and she wants to romance that person. It just doesn’t work when you’re trying to prove a point and the main character does the exact opposite of what you’re trying to prove.

I understand this is supposed to be satire and there’s a lot that happens that goes in line with that, but there’s also so much contradiction that it cancels the message the author is trying to convey. I genuinely connected with what Iman Hariri-Kia talked about in the author’s note that I assumed the rest of the book would follow that line of thought.

Every single one of these bitches is gay!! Good for them!!!

I think this book did a lot of things so beautifully. The pacing flowed without missing a beat, the story was intriguing and sometimes chilling without ever going for shock value, and it was presented in this understated, quiet sort of way that was really refreshing? I dunno, I feel like the current trend is for authors to make their messaging as loud and obvious as possible so that the reader can never miss the point, but this one definitely had a bit more faith in the reader. And there's a lot to unpack, from the meditation on grief to the examination of monstrousness to the depiction of a child growing up under the weight of parental expectations, and much more besides. There's a lot of emotional depth just under the surface with this book, and I really loved getting to experience it.

That said, it does lose a star because I was missing some of the character depth I would've needed to feel fully invested, and I just never had that gut feeling of being in love with what I was reading. Still, I'm extremely impressed with it!

I don't know how to describe this book except as confused not living up to its premise. My main problems are the half-baked romance and how having two leads prevents really exploring our characters more deeply. I personally didn't feel any spark in between our leads so the romance didn't feel compelling. It's hard to articulate exactly what is missing, but I do feel there was a real lack of yearning. I also felt that we didn't have enough wrestling with these characters and the roles that they have been forced into as archetypes of the villainous woman. There's so much to reflect on and I think this concept would have worked better as like a black box play. The specific theatre comp that comes to mind for me is Assassins and the way in which these different characters are all existing in a strange plane of reality. That show is able to really nail who these people are, identify their underlying motivations, and reflect on greater societal themes.

When it comes down to it, I think the biggest issue is that I've seen multiple pieces of media that better tackle the themes presented in this book. The Isle in the Silver Sea has a stronger romance and engages with the idea of characters, including a woman villain, rejecting their preexisting roles. The Everlasting reflects on the cycle of reimagining characters and the role that stories can play in the human experience. Finally, I think that Dimension 20 Neverafter does a better job at doing a horror twist on classic characters and engaging with authors as characters in their own right. When you're writing on themes that have been well tread in recent years, I think that the story needs to be well executed.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free e-ARC.