This is a romance if we agree that love is obsession, co-dependency, neglecting every other relationship in your life because you’re literally addicted to your partner, compulsively needing sex as reassurance, and not taking care of your mental health. And I don’t agree with that. 

The writing is beautiful and, yes, very romantic, there are so many quotes to gush over, but this relationship isn’t swoon-worthy and it’s not something I’d strive for. It felt unhealthy and, frankly, unsettling to me. I disliked them together so much, I feel like I read a completely different book from most people and I’m not sure what to do with that.

In reading the acknowledgments, I understand this is a personal work for this author. But while she says that it’s not a book about how pills are bad, that’s exactly what it reads like. Is that my fault as a reader? Or is the message simply contradicting the author’s intentions? I don’t know. All I know is that however beautiful the prose was, I can’t sit here and say that I think this is a beautiful love story. It wasn't. 

That said, I found the characters very interesting even if I didn’t like them all the time and certainly wasn’t rooting for them to be together. They felt very fleshed out and real, something I always enjoy. And they had to be because this is very much a character study, so there's really no plot. 

This book had me for the first 2 or 3 parts. Granted, I’m not ever thrilled about cheating that can and should be easily avoided, but I let that slide. It still lost me when I started realizing how unhealthy they both were together and it just kept getting worse. Once the glass breaks, it’s over. I finished it because the writing is truly fantastic, I just wish I actually liked the story...