Review: I Hate Everyone But You

I Hate Everyone But You

Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

Publication Date: September 5, 2017

Hardcover, 352 pages, Wednesday Books

Genres: YA, Contemporary, LGBTQ+

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Now a New York Times Bestseller!

Dear Best Friend,

I can already tell that I will hate everyone but you.

Sincerely,

Ava Helmer

(that brunette who won’t leave you alone)

We're still in the same room, you weirdo.

Stop crying.

G

So begins a series of texts and emails sent between two best friends, Ava and Gen, as they head off to their first semesters of college on opposite sides of the country. From first loves to weird roommates, heartbreak, self-discovery, coming out and mental health, the two best friends will document every moment to each other. But as each changes and grows into her new life, will their friendship be able to survive the distance?

My Review

So this book isn’t written in a typical narrative format. It’s written in email and text message form as a conversation between two main characters: Ava and Gen. Normally, I would enjoy such a fun storytelling method, but with this book, I just didn’t…

Before I really get into this review, I have to mention that I didn’t know this book even existed until a couple of months ago. I also know nothing about the authors, who are apparently popular YouTube stars. And, while I don’t think Ava and Gen are supposed to completely represent the authors’ personalities, I think they did for the most part.

Ava has social anxiety and mental health issues, while Gen is dealing with coming out and exploring her sexuality. Both topics are important, but the format this was told in made it super obvious that the authors just randomly texted/emailed back and forth to reply to the writing of the previous author. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean that it was obvious Gaby was just trying to one-up Allison’s writing with a more shocking situation to put her character in and vice versa.

Also, the storytelling of this book was rather dull. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters or their problems. I think using a different narrative format would have helped. However, one character really took advantage of the other, and I just wasn’t having it. The other character wouldn’t ever stick up for herself. EVER! And the situations they both put themselves in were waaaaay too obvious and cliché. They’re just not very relatable characters, in my personal opinion.

All in all, this book just wasn’t for me. There’s a lot of important issues discussed in I Hate Everyone But You that could have been dealt with in a more impactful way, especially considering this is a YA contemporary. Yet, the entire story just comes across as fluff. I would say, if you want to read this book, don’t go into it with super high expectations.

*Note: I was gifted an ARC of this book. This in no way affected my opinion/review.