Johan

Too short... I wanted more, they were pretty cute 

It's trash. We all know it. We all enjoy it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

The most common reaction I had while reading the book was receiting “what the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck” on a loop. I found most of the stories quite bizarre and didn't knew what to think of most of them tbh, especially at the beggining.

The book tackle themes of body horror here and there but imo where the book shines the most is in it's descriptions of truly the most grotesque situations. Not only is Grudova great at coming up with the exact situation/imagery to disgust you (the son in the third story, iykyk) but I think it becomes even more disgusting and disturbing when you sit for a moment and meditate the fact that this IS life for a lot of people. It is exagerated, but it also reflects accurately what a lof of folks have to go through because of 🌈capitalism🌈

Putting that aside, I did find myself kind of disapointed that a lot of the stories seemingly had no plot? They felt a bit like outlines (very curt narration, not much description) or first drafts. It would be like peering into the life of this random person one moment and then at a random point the story ends. I suspect both the language she used and the nature of the narrative might have to do, again, with the fact that this are supposed to be your random everyday person, whose lives are just kind of unremarkable? Yet the simplicity of the language makes it that more shocking when you read someone eating vomit nonchalantly because there is just no build up, there's no sensation that this is a special moment, it's just part of every day life.

I think for me this is might of those books that becomes more enjoyable when you read it a second or third time. Because on first read I think it is quite easy to fixate on the grotesque parts and overlook the social critique. 

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Pros:

- The main characters feel very grounded, like actual people whose lives we're peering into. They have their likes, dislikes, quirks, way of working, etc. and there's not a lot of talk about said backstory because they are 40(ish) and most of it it's not relevant to the story, at this point in their lives it's just part of them as persons.
- There's also a definite lack of drama for the sake of drama compared to other romance books I've read before, which is certainly refreshing. When they have a discussion or fight either they stop talking without petty interactions or make up by directly apologizing without skirting around the topic. It definitely makes them feel like the inteligent adults they sure are.
- The antagonist also felt very real and like an actual person with their own interests instead of a caricature bent on ruining the main characters lives for petty reasons.
- The medical setting didn't felt like it was chosen just to have a quirky/cool medical romance and use it to “hinder” the romance until a certain word count (“oh we're so busy, we can't date”). The novel is actually set most of the time inside the hospital or in settings/situations surrounding the hospital (like a nearby cafe, or during a medical disertation(?), etc) and the characters are actually seen working, through the common everyday, mid disasters, and you can tell the author did their research and knows what she's talking about: there's actual medical jargon and more than once we peer inside the operation rooms and it's dynamics, wether it serves the romantic plot or no, because that's part of the life of the characters.

Cons:

- Sometimes the discussions or certain topics are glossed over with a time skip, so if, for instance, they fight in a chapter, they make up at the beggining of the next chapter, which makes it feel a bit unearned? Like there was no time for them to change their mind or meditate on the situation because there was barely a couple of pharagraphs in between one and the other.
- Although the book is classified as enemies to lovers the actual “enemies” portion was so brief that it felt more like a friends to lovers story, it would have been nice to spend a bit more time with the “enemies” dynamic since that's what the reader wanted to read and was expecting coming into the book. 

I'm gonna miss their bannter so much