So this book was an unexpected whirlwind. It had the kind of "throw everything at you in the hopes that something sticks" vibe that soap operas and shows like Grey's Anatomy are famous for. I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to feel about any of the characters: Ivy was lonely but also aimless and cold and made a lot of stupid decisions and took everything to the extreme; Gideon was aloof and distant; Sylvia was hot-and-cold and not really present; Roo was a dick; Tom was a bigger dick; Ivy's parents were an enigma; Gideon's parents are a veneer.

The pacing was way off for me. Ivy's adulthood and "whirlwind" engagement were soooo slow. The vacation at the beach house felt infinite. And then the end was absolute crazytown of various "twists" being thrown at you all at once. And particularly the last twist was like "wait what?" And it all felt kind of... Pointless.

I was trying to explain the book to some friends yesterday and they kept asking me "but what's the plot? What does she want?" And... I couldn't tell them. It's not as simple as "she wants to marry a rich, successful person" because that's belittling the complexity of Ivy's character. But also... I didn't know. She just keeps making illogical decisions and FOR WHAT?

So I guess kudos to Yang for making my brain work this hard to figure out how I feel about this one

{Thank you Librofm and Simon Audio for the ALC; all thoughts are my own}