Love & Other Carnivorous Plants

Love and Other Carnivorous Plants by Florence Gonsalves

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Received: Distributor
First Published: May 15th, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown BFYR
Recommended Age: 12+
Pacing: Fast
Genres & Themes: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mental Health, College, LGBT

BLURB:

Freshman year at Harvard was the most anticlimactic year of Danny’s life. She’s failing pre-med and drifting apart from her best friend. One by one, Danny is losing all the underpinnings of her identity. When she finds herself attracted to an older, edgy girl who she met in rehab for an eating disorder, she finally feels like she might be finding a new sense of self. But when tragedy strikes, her self-destructive tendencies come back to haunt her as she struggles to discover who that self really is.

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DNF at 25%. I see no point in reading this book. I already know that it’s not going to teach me something meaningful and I feel as though there is a part missing—the part before and where she is recovering. All we get is the *after* part, making it seem as though the story begun a long time ago and what we get is what the heroine cares to share.

Speaking of the heroine, she is the non-stop sarcastic type. At first it was okay, and I even enjoyed her crazy thoughts or somewhat clever remarks, but at some point I just realized that most of what the characters say makes no sense or is really plain weird—not the sort of things real teenagers would think or say to each other.

Examples include:

I can’t breathe—not because there’s not enough air in the room, but because I’m suddenly allergic to it.

I’m sorry, what? Allergic?

One. Two. Three. I exhale slowly. By the time I’m twenty-five they’ll have found a way to sell my own breath back to me.

Who’s ‘‘they’’?? Also, didn’t you just say that you were allergic to it, so why do you want it back? You are not consistent, girl.

‘‘Come over tonight. I’ll make you dinner.’’
I hesitate. But I can tell I’ve already begun to fall.
‘‘Okay.’’ I hope my voice sounds more confident than I feel. ‘‘But I’m a vegan today.’’
She gets up and pats my shoulder. ‘‘I was a vegan once too, until a piece of bacon saved my life.’’

Right… Because vegans necessarily have health problems since they don’t eat meat. Ok thanks for explaining. Sike. I know many vegans, and I have to say that I, myself, eat meat maybe once a month and I’m feeling fine thank you very much. I don’t like characters that are trying to convert others to what they think is best.

I was excited about the LGBT theme in the beginning but spoiler alert: it’s not romantic. She meets a girl, loses the girl, then sees her again—and once more we realize that we’ve missed a huge chunk of the story. I like to get the *before*, not simply the *after*. Is that so unreasonable?

Anyway, moving on.

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