This was an interesting book in that I don’t think the stories themselves were particularly interesting, but the character’s thought processes made me think ‘oh, I understand’. I guess this is the first time I’ve felt like the internal thought processes of characters in a book felt very familiar 😅 The next closest would be Radio Silence by Alice Oseman, but with that book I couldn’t relate to the behaviour of the characters at all.
The first story made me feel sad that people end up compromising on relationships. And I felt affinity to the way the main character would block people saying mean things about other people online. I often wonder why people can’t be nice, or at the very least be civil…
The second story which is the title one was a good look into the way people can become overwhelmed by the injustices of the world. I felt affinity to the way Nanamori felt guilty about his privilege, how he felt paralysis when he found out people he liked and thought were generally good people had conflicting views to him on ‘progressive’ things and the weird balancing act between not asking questions in order to be considerate but also being indifferent by not asking questions (I feel like I really struggle with this in an office setting and end up going with the ‘safe’ option of not asking ‘personal’ questions at all). If it means anything, I am also not a person who talks to stuffed animals whereas my husband probably would and I think he is a much nicer person than me, so the theory checks out?
The third story I felt fear for the main character in the way the ‘nice’ guy she was seeing turned all aggressive and hateful when she didn’t reply to his messages for a bit. As well as her discomfort at the sexist jokes her aspiring comedian brother was telling.
I didn’t really understand the last story, it felt very surreal to me. But I did feel affinity to the main character thinking she had no friends at school but then realising she was the only one who felt that way. I feel like I’m not really a very likeable person yet I’m lucky enough to have a decent number of people want to be my friend, for which I am grateful.
The other thing that kind of stood out to me in the book was what I would consider ‘nerd’ references but honestly are now just normal everyday references most people would probably understand and not bat an eyelid at. Like Squirtles and Beyblades.
Categories: Book Reviews
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