Reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of all the messages and the morals that it comes with. I dont truly understand the bad reviews for this book, which made me skeptical of the book initially, because I believed I learned a lot through this book, and I understood every single character and their flaws and feeling (except Tom, he is a class A d*ck)

I don't like to read books where the main character is not likeable, which the reviews said Iris is a bitch, but I am glad I read the book because I can completely resonate with Iris, and understand where she is coming from. The writing is a bit slow and boring but the messages behind just hits the heart.

Those who called Iris a bitch and don't like her don't understand how devastating it is to be all alone at your lowest. I have been at my lowest but with support, and that was already hard to go through. Imagine doing it all alone.
Tom left her when she was at her most vulnerable - trying extremely hard to have a child but to no avail, while your friends are all doing a-okay with having a kid, and your husband just doesn't want to give you enough support and proper communication because he is selfish.
When you want something so bad, it's hard to imagine a life without it. It's hard to not be disappointed and sad all the time. And you're expected to be happy for your friends with their kids even though that's what makes you feel the shittiest. AND THEN you feel shitty for feeling shitty. Tom fell out of love when there were still other options (IVF, adoption, surrogate) because he doesn't love her enough. And he starts falling for another girl. Imagine how it feels to have your only rock leave you for another girl because you try too hard to have a kid. And of course, Iris had the perception that Maddy being a homewrecker. Who, in this world, WHO wouldn't be mad? Who wouldn't want revenge? Who wouldn't want to see the person who RUINED THEIR LIFE, THEIR DREAMS, THEIR WILL TO LIVE, to fall down? Who wouldn't want to? WE ARE HUMANS. We have this ugly emotion called jealousy. EVERYONE HAS IT. It's whether you ACT UPON IT, or you heal in different ways. Also, when things start going haywire, you tend to be defensive of yourself and you start hurting and putting the blame on other people instead.
Now, Iris is used to being the "more responsible" sibling. Her sister was always odd from the beginning, so she had to be the one who step up. Even though not expected to, she was always feeling the resposibility and pressure to be the better sibling. This independence makes her mother pay more attention to her overdramatic child, and as this happens from young, it made Iris grow into this person who has ugly feelings, and acts upon them. Iris didn't have the proper time and way to heal. And when she thought Tom was her forever, he decided to leave her. I don't know how you guys can call Iris a bitch. She is broken. She hadn't had the time to heal. She was meant to suck it up and move on. No proper support (her friends were too busy), and as independent as she is, she becomes stubborn.
The good thing is, she stopped. She decided enough is enough. She didn't want to be a hater anymore. When she realised how good life can be without thinking about all these people and letting the negative feelings take over, she decided to work on that instead of being a sad sod. And that's really a good thing. The fact that she can turn things over and forgive herself for what was going on.

People have to understand that some will become a terrible person because of the terrible things that has happened to them. It happens to all of us.

So I don't hate Iris. I get what she's coming from. I get her anger, her sadness, her jealousy. I get it. It does not make her a bad person. It makes her a broken person.

I enjoyed this book. If you have empathy, I'm sure you will enjoy it

sharalc's review

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emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

A funny and engaging read that keeps you hooked and has really really real stable characters.

I did feel that there was a lot of focus on the friends of Iris throughout and felt it was a shame that this wasn’t continued through to the end as I was invested in them by then but didn’t really get any closure in their stories