It’s impossible to get to know people deeply and not come to like them.

Oh boy do I know some people who will prove you wrong.

I cannot stand the way Ted talks about women. It’s not excessively sexualizing or objectifying but he is so obsessed with describing their appearance or visual appeal, like every single one of them. He thinks about his attraction to women way too much. Like does he even view them as people outside of how hot they are? And he has the nerve to complain about other people.

I’m pleasantly surprised by how well Lily’s POV is written, so far at least (let’s hope I didn’t jinx it), given that the author is male. I find female perspectives from a male author tend to be poorly written, especially when they deal with topics like sex, abuse, romance, and the interplay between those three things. But I’m really intrigued by Lily and her chapters are my motivation to continue right now.

Ted’s POV is written very much like the kind of man he’s proving himself to be, which means he’s kind of annoying to read, but in that sense the characterization is realistic and serves its purpose. His chapters are good on a technical level but I find myself trying to get through them as fast as possible. Hopefully that changes when the plot picks up.

I’d known about sex for almost my entire life. One of my earliest memories was of my parents doing it on a large towel in the dunes on some beach vacation. I was three feet away, digging in the sand with a plastic trowel. I remember my baby bottle was filled with warm apple juice.

Sorry what??? Your parents need to be jailed. Or at least someone should have called CPS on them. That literally qualifies as sexual abuse.