by Aminah Mae Safi
Published on October 13, 2020 by Feiwel & Friends
Format: ARC
Pages: 320
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Set over the course of one day, this smart and voice-driven YA novel follows three young women determined to save their indie bookstore.
Rinn Olivera is finally going to tell her longtime crush AJ that she’s in love with him.Daniella Korres writes poetry for her own account, but nobody knows it’s her.
Imogen Azar is just trying to make it through the day.
When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with.
And it will take all three of them working together if they have any chance to save Wild Nights Bookstore.
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Not Quite the Empire Records-esque Story I Was Hoping For
The Highlights:
- Dynamic characters
- A fantastic setting
- A book for book lovers!
- I was so bored though
I think sometimes I want to love a book too much. It’s kinda like that feel you get as a kid, when you pick up a cute animal and want to squeeze, but your little kid brain goes into overdrive and you squeeze too hard and then get bit. Well, that’s kind of how I felt about This Is All Your Fault. I wouldn’t say my expectations were too high, I went in with basically no expectations. But I did want to love it, because, hello! Empire Records? But IN A BOOKSTORE? Yes, please. Unfortunately, I just didn’t love this one, and I’m pretty sad about it.
The kicker here is that the characters were so good. Like, better than the the group in Empire Records, because these characters actually had problems and relationships I could sympathize with. They’re diverse, they’re funny, and they’re easy to get attached to. The characters are the best thing this This Is All Your Fault has going for it, and they alone are enough for me to recommend it.
However. However. I was so bored reading this book. I can’t believe how bored I was. It’s always tricky when and entire book takes place over the course of one day, but it can be done well. This time it just didn’t cut it for me. one hundred pages in and I felt like nothing had happened. It became a chore to read after a while, and I realized I was just reading to get to the next exciting scene, then to just get to the end. I’d thought the setting would make me care more, an independent bookstore that’s closing down, but I just couldn’t do it. The characters are all that kept me reading. I liked them more than their book, if that makes sense. So in the end, a relatively short book ended up taking me forever to get through because I didn’t really care one way or another what happened.
So, overall, I think I would recommend This Is All Your Fault, but I would point out the negatives I outlined above. It could be a fast read for someone more invested in the story itself than I was. And it’s perfect for readers who like very character focused books. Unfortunately, this one just wasn’t for me.
About Katie
I'm a twenty-something aspiring writer who really, really needs to get back to revisions. I've been reviewing books since 2014, and am determined to somehow make stories my day job. I truly think that every book out there contains something good and is meant for somebody.
I just finished this book today, and I thought it was just me, but I was never pulled into the story. There were moments and I thought it picked up towards the end, but maybe it was because it was sort of boring.