Review: More Than Maybe by Erin Hahn
This book would have made infinitely more sense if the characters were seniors in college and not high school. So much of this book suffers from the incredibly odd placement of these problems with 18-year-olds. Especially the ending, the resolution for our female lead, Vada, is comical in the incredible improbability. Normally this kind of thing doesn't bother me this much, but the book reads so clearly like a college story; it really should have been a college story.
This is a terrible review start though, More Than Maybe is a rom-com focusing on Vada, an overachieving high school senior who writes a music blog, works at her mom's boyfriend’s bar, and wants to go to California for college, and Luke, music-obsessed, songwriting shy British boy, who fall for each other over the course of the book. Their relationship didn't work incredibly well for me; it was kind of doomed from the beginning. They are set up as two people whose lives are incredibly intertwined; they see each other a minimum of once a week, and Lukes twin, Cullen, is very good friends with Vada, but despite both characters being obsessed with each other for years, we are meant to believe they only started actually talking when they were assigned to the same group project (or essentially a group project). It just seems kind of silly? Especially because we know Vada is confident in other areas, and we know Luke has no problem talking to other girls. We can move on from this now.
The real issues I had with the book lay elsewhere—specifically the writing and some of the characterization. I am not the arbiter of what is and what is not good writing, I can only really say what does or does not work for me, and Erin Hahn's writing does not work for me. That's fine. I found whole chunks of text that could be essentially skipped over without affecting the reader's understanding of the story or the characters, and I just didn't like the way the book was written even when it was conveying needed information to me. Again, that's fine; not every writer is for every reader. If this wasn't an ARC I have had forever, I would have stopped a few pages in; that is how quickly I didn't think the writing was for me. However, I didn't give up hope that it would turn around for me until about the 30% mark. After this, I just kind of barreled on so I could finish it.
The characterization stuff that didn't work for me was mostly in the stereotypes the author used to build characters from marginalized communities and a good chunk of the non-primary female characters. I was uncomfortable with a lot of how the author portrayed characters who were POC or LGBTQ; specifically, I was uncomfortable with how people talked about Cullen, Luke's gay brother. I am not saying she is a racist or homophobic person, just that it made me uncomfortable, and I am not sure how well this author wrote those whose lives are not like hers. I also really really want the thing where most girls who aren't our main character, her mom/sisters/family members, and best friend are 'slutty', stupid, vain, and/or just there to show someone else is better than them to die. I hate this so much. It becomes harder and harder not to be bothered by it the later it was published and the older I get.
On to a petty complaint. I lived in London for a while (yes, hello, I am an annoying American who mentions when they lived abroad), but this would have bothered me before that, I think. While I lived in London, I was consistently asked by British guys if I found their accents attractive, which is a kind of wild way to speak to others. Still, it is because of narratives like this where an American must repeatedly mention the hot British accent that is very British and very hot is so hot and British. I was just kind of rolling my eyes. Also, the Brit speak was very fanfiction in my humble opinion. Maybe the author has British friends or family, and I just don't like her writing, but it comes off as very odd to me.
I was mostly just bored and distracted while I read this book. This might sound odd because I read the book very quickly. But I was absolutely sure if I put it down, I would never actually finish the book. So I did it in one go as quickly as I possibly could. Also, the way the internet functions in this book is very much how magic functions in vague fantasy. It made me laugh a little bit.
I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph. I clearly didn't like the book, but maybe it is for you if you like fluffy YA rom-coms, pretentious British boys, and saving the small business narratives.
ARC provided by publisher through NetGalley
