We Are Inevitable - Gayle Forman

Genre: YA Fiction

Release Date: Expected 1st June 2021

Trigger Warnings: Drugs, Alcohol, Addiction, Debt, Injury, references to death.

"Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds ... how is that not a miracle?"

Aaron is used to the bad things in his life being inevitable. In the last year, everything has changed. His mum is gone, his brother is gone, and his dad Ira might still be physically there but mentally he's been gone a long time too. While all of his friends have gone off to college to start their lives, Aaron finds himself the reluctant owner of Bluebird Books - his families failing and debt-ridden business. But the most he reads these days are credit card statements and overdue notices.

It might have even been inevitable that one day, he bumps into Chad, someone he hated in school but started a chain reaction of events that led him to Hannah. It felt like they were supposed to meet that day, that something was drawing them together for reasons they didn't even know yet.

I've always loved Gayle Forman, she has a way of writing that invokes so much emotion and never fails to make me laugh and cry along with her - this was no exception. Aaron was the perfect unreliable narrator - so unsure of the world around him and certain he couldn't do anything to change it. He was awkward and shy and I just wanted to give him a hug.

Now, this might look like a love story on the surface, about two people who find each other and are destined to fall in love - but it's so much more than that. The characters who came together because of the bookstore were a beautifully mismatched group that no business knowing each other - but they were the real love story here. I expected to hate Chad right away but he won my heart in a matter of seconds. The unexpected friends Aaron finds on his way to try and escape the inevitable were the absolute stars of this book and it took me by surprise in the most amazing way.

This was a book for book-lovers - the amount of book references scattered throughout the chapter titles and the story itself was the best little easter egg. Heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once, this book really was a miracle in twenty-six letters.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Gayle Forman and Simon + Schuster UK for an ARC in return for an honest review.

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