Boyfriend Material

DNFed at 30%.
This was disappointing. I wanted to enjoy it but I couldn't get past certain things. The dialogue between the two main characters was really confusing. They would be having what I deemed a typical banter and then out of nowhere one of them is deeply offended but I had no idea why. The amount of times this happened was annoying. It feels a lot like the miscommunication trope which I don't enjoy and it feels like at a certain point you would just stop feeling comfortable interacting with someone who is getting offended by everything you say. So the fact that it was building into a relationship didn't feel earned. It was awkward. But the most awkward part of the book was how Hall treats many of the characters. Like how dumb Hall tried to make Alex. To the point that it was absurd. The part where I just had to give up on this book was when Alex is making comments about how his father viewed jury members but kept mixing it up with his feelings on badgers. He even says something like “and they make so many holes in the walls... no wait that's badgers”. It was deeply cringey and embarrassing. None of the intended jokes were funny.