We Are Inevitable - Gayle Forman

 

'I got this whole-body feeling... it was like a message from future me to present me, telling me that in some way we weren’t just bound to happen, that we had, in some sense, already happened. It felt... inevitable.'

So far, the inevitable hasn’t worked out so well for Aaron Stein.

While his friends have gone to college and moved on with their lives, Aaron’s been left behind in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, running a failing bookshop with his dad, Ira. What he needs is a lucky break, the good kind of inevitable.

And then he meets Hannah. Incredible Hannah – magical, musical, brave and clever. Could she be the answer? And could they – their relationship, their meeting – possibly be the inevitable Aaron’s been waiting for?

Blurb taken from Goodreads. 

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I was really fortunate to receive an advance reader copy of We Are Inevitable through Netgalley. I've read Gayle Forman's books before and absolutely loved them, so I just knew that this would be a great fit for me! This sounded like such a lovely concept, especially for a bookworm! 

It had a lovely cosy feel right from the beginning. I loved the idea for the plot, and some of the characters were so dynamic and engaging! I did find the story chaotic and a little illogical in places, but it had such charm and such humour that I didn't really mind that at all. It's a lovely little letter to bookworms everywhere about the joy and support we can get from fiction, and I loved it.

Rating: ✫✫✫✫

(Trigger warning for this book: Addiction)

My Thoughts

The story felt like a classic YA plot. You have your plot focus, which in this case was the bookstore. You have a little romance. And you have the 'coming-of-age' vibe that really helps to drive it all forwards. It was the perfect recipe for YA success. 

Because of all the different plotlines, I did feel that the story was a little too chaotic in places. It often felt to me like there was one too many themes being dealt with, at detriment to the others. However, this wasn't too much of a concern to me. In fact, some of my favourite scenes were the incredibly chaotic ones with multiple personalities all talking over each other! It really added to the charm of the story.

I think that the real beauty in this story is rooted in all of the lovely characters. They're so varied, and they jump off the page. Unfortunately, the main character, Aaron, is very difficult to connect with for a lot of the book. He's troubled, self-centred and difficult for a lot of the narrative, which makes him incredibly difficult to sympathise with. His obsession with the inevitable is a bit dull after a while - I could see the way Forman was trying to make that theme stick, but it began to feel a little forced in places. However, the wonderful characters around Aaron take him on a journey; a journey that's incredibly satisfying to conclude and that makes him far more likeable. 

What really sets this book apart, though, is the way it highlights the wonder of fiction. I've seen other reviewers call We Are Inevitable a 'love letter to books', and I can certainly see that. There are a lot of books referenced in the story, and I loved the list at the end that cited them all. The bookstore is a beautiful setting for the story, but it's the lessons that are demonstrated through fiction that make it so uplifting. There are stories within this story that are powerful, and that teach us something. The power of fiction is that it presents information and themes in a way that allows us to connect with it, and learn from it. This book was full of that, and every page had a new story. I've not seen many other books that show so much appreciation for fiction, and it was incredibly uplifting.

The Verdict

I thought this book was really powerful, and really uplifting. It has the easy-reading of a great YA book, but it also included a lot of different stories that teach us something. I struggled a little with the chaos and some of the unnecessary themes, but not in a way that hindered my enjoyment of the story at all. The different characters were genuinely an absolute joy to read about, and I think the setting of the book is unbelievably charming, in such a way that the whole story leaps off the page. Ultimately, this is a book about the power of fiction, which is something we should definitely champion. From start to finish, it was an absolute delight.