It was inevitable that this book was going to consume me this Sunday afternoon.

Sorry, had to get that out of the way! But a book about bookstores is all it takes to catch my attention and Gayle Forman will have me devouring it in one short afternoon.

However, this book is about so much more than just a bookstore: it's about a bookish boy who no longer reads anything except for The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, it's about a family trying to work out how to heal from a devastating loss and it's about community. And it is not really about the love interest, Hannah, at all. Excellent. My type of book.

I have always loved Gayle Forman's writing but have often struggled with her characters and hence my overall enjoyability of the book. It's been a few years since I last read anything by her, so I don't know if this change in how I feel is because of her or because of me. Because you won't always like Aaron. You'll understand why he is the way he is, but it doesn't always make it any easier. The supporting cast of characters is strong though and they help to propel this novel along while you work through your feelings about Aaron.

It's not an easy journey that we go on with Aaron, but it's peppered through with book references and music and a feeling of hope - even when it's all going wrong. I loved the discussion of music being another type of storytelling. There's a lot of hard topics and content warnings include substance abuse, death of a sibling and victim blaming (all of which are covered in a sensitive way). There's a lot I appreciated about this book though and part of it was how Aaron had to learn that falling in love doesn't solve all of one's problems and most of it how this book reads as a love letter to independent bookstores, especially as Aaron reminisces on the better days of the store.

Look, I just loved this. And I'm off to buy the Gayle Forman books I don't already own from my local bookstore.

I really enjoyed this book and could see the love and joy the author has towards bookstores and the book community. We are Inevitable showed me everything I loved about reading and bibliomania as well as how important it is to forgive, grieve and take time for yourself.

“Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds.”

The author calls this book a “love letter to books, and to booksellers” and there are so many bookish delights:

I got to read about other people who love books as much as I do.

The chapter headings are book titles! Why didn’t I think of that?! [Must borrow this idea if I ever write a book…]

Bookish references in abundance! Books within books are one of my top five favourite bookish things. Book titles are casually scattered throughout the book. Storylines of well known books are mentioned. Movies that began their lives as books are discussed (the book was better).

“Seriously? It was also a book first?”
“Seriously.”
“Are all movies books first?”
“Just the best ones.”

If you’re like me and likely to panic around the halfway point when you wish you’d been making a list of all of the books that have been mentioned, don’t worry; there’s a bibliography at the end.

Independent bookstores! We get to hang out in not one, but two of them! With booksellers who desperately love books and about making sure the book the reader needs finds its way to them.

“Tell me: What’s the last book you read that you loved?”

The main bookstore has genres grouped together in a way that makes so much sense.

I could happily spend my entire review talking about the books, bookstores and booksellers but there’s more to this book than books. We also come face to face with some pretty difficult topics. Multiple characters are dealing with addiction, either their own or a loved one’s. Likewise, multiple characters are grieving. Chad, my favourite character, is living with a spinal cord injury.

I adore Chad, although I expect I wouldn’t have been a huge fan of him before his accident. He’s had some pretty impressive post traumatic growth and his attitude is amazing. I could have done without him saying “dawg” and “son” all the time but I guess no one’s perfect.

Speaking of not being perfect, Aaron (our main character) is definitely a work in progress. I really didn’t like him at all for a good portion of the book, during which he basically treats everyone around him like garbage. He did begin to make more sense to me as I got to know him but until then, ugh!

I loved Aaron’s father, Ira, because he loves books so much. The fact that he’s still so passionate about them, despite grief, anxiety and depression, made me love him even more. He truly comes alive when he talks books and that resonated with me.

I liked the Lumberjacks, getting to know Ike the best. He came up with my favourite line (pardon his French):

“Fudge a duck on a hot sidewalk!”

You might be interested in this book because of the romance, which is pretty insta, but it’s not the main focus of the book. Aaron, a young man who doesn’t like music, falls for a young woman who’s in a band.

“Every time I see her, I feel that thing: the inevitable.
The thing is: I don’t trust the inevitable.
I mean, what has inevitable done for me?
Ruined my life is what.”

I was ready to love Hannah but never formed an emotional connection with her. Her purpose seemed to be to act as a mirror for Aaron. I didn’t feel like I got to know Hannah that well and her bandmates are even more of a mystery to me. I really wanted to find out more about Jax, especially when it looked as though they were going to become more integral to the story, but pretty much all I know for sure about them is their pronouns (they/them).

““Are the answers to all life’s questions in books?”
“Of course,” he says. “That’s what makes them miracles.””

Content warnings are included on my blog.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children's Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK, for the opportunity to read this book.