ARC Review: What If It’s Us

Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it.

Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things.

But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them?

Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated.

Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited.

But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third?

What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough?

What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play?

But what if it is?

What If It’s Us

Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Rating: 1/5 🌈
Published: 9th October 2018
Goodreads
Rep: gay mcs (one ownvoices, one not), Puerto Rican mc (ownvoices), Jewish mc (ownvoices), mc with ADHD, side character with anxiety, side non-white characters

I don’t know if we’re in a love story or a story about love.

Galley provided by publisher

I did think that perhaps this was just one of those where I’ve grown out of the authors, but I actually reread Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda earlier this year and still liked it just as much as the first time round, so it can’t just be that. And this book did seem a whole lot more cringeworthy than any other books I’ve read by either author.

To summarise the plot: Arthur meets Ben as he’s getting rid of his ex-boyfriend’s things at the post office. Unfortunately, before he can get a number, their meeting is interrupted by a lederhosen-clad flash mob (yeah, this was the first part where I went, really?). Anyway, that’s the first 30 to 40 pages or so. The next 120 pages is dedicated to them… not meeting again. And then they do meet again. And follow that classic romance pattern.

So, number one on my list of things I didn’t really like about this book was the pacing. I don’t need 120 pages of their day to day life before they meet again. And then I don’t need another 150 pages of them dating (though seemingly, on Ben’s part at least, while not actually wanting to date), before the inevitable and tedious (and overdramatic) breakup because of miscommunication. I feel like all this could have been condensed into a lot less than 450 pages. And so, because I have like, no patience, I got bored. Overall, though, I could have dealt with that, rated this book 2 stars maybe, but then came the kicker.

It’s overwhelmingly cringeworthy. Every other paragraph feels like it includes a pop culture reference (Hamilton and Harry Potter being common ones – and don’t even get me started on that part where Arthur gets Ben to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack and then Ben makes a comment about writing Hamilton/Harry Potter crossover fanfiction. I physically recoiled from the computer). One or two I could deal with, but the sheer number of them in this? I was cringing at least once a chapter and that’s really not fun. Not to mention the part where Arthur mistakes someone for Ansel Elgort and I had to feel the horror of a real life person being inserted into the narrative and subsequent secondhand embarrassment. It was not nice.

A brief list of some other things that made me cringe along the way:

• “some kind of Kinsey scale Sorting Hat”
• when they talked about Pokemon fanfiction in real life
• when Arthur talks about the green M&M being sexy along with some Looney Tunes characters on their first date
• and Harry Potter porn
• mentioning Draco/Hermione fanfiction

But one particularly major cringe came from two points, both in Becky Albertalli’s chapters. In one, Arthur and Ben are kissing when Arthur or Ben comments that maybe that’s something Barack and Michelle (Obama) do on his birthday (why this comment? Because Barack Obama is Arthur’s “forever president”?), and the other says more likely it’s Obama and Justin Trudeau, while Joe Biden watches. Literally everything about this part is so creepy, starting with the fact that these are real people. But it does not stop here. Later on, a second joke is made along similar lines, but this time about porn between Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Members of a party that wants to get rid of gay rights. Which, again these are real people, but this time it also just feeds back into the “all homophobes are secretly gay” line of argument. In the end, it was the cringeworthiness of the book that made me give it 1 star.

One last point: I didn’t actually much like Ben as a character either. He’s honestly a bit of a dickhead, and spends his time when he’s starting to date Arthur comparing him to his ex-boyfriend. And he writes a self-insert fantasy story, which is honestly, just another cringeworthy thing to add to the list. (Someone also pointed out to me that he’s a bit like an Adam Silvera self-insert, and I am really scarred.)

Maybe it’ll be different for other readers, who don’t find the pop culture references as cringey, and who are bigger fans of these authors, but in the end, it was just too much for me.