Here's to Us (review) besties!!!

 

I’ll say, I am a fan of both Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, so the two of them writing together seemed like a perfect match for me. So, I did read What If It’s Us when it came out. To place it, it wasn’t my favourite book by either of them, but it also wasn’t my least favourite. It sits solidly in the middle for both authors. I’m pretty sure I even wrote about What If It’s Us in my MA dissertation. Still, today I’m talking about the sequel, Here’s to Us. I do quickly want to mention that this post will spoil the end of the prequel, so just be warned there.

Also, if you want to video version of this post (CLICK HERE)

The first thing our blurb says is, “How much can change in two years?” I remember at the end of the first book, Ben and Arthur didn’t end up together, because, for whatever reason, things just kept going wrong. But Miss Blurb says that Ben survived his first year or college but is feeling more stuck than ever. His writing partner, Mario, has been giving him Spanish lessons and kisses, but he can’t stop thinking about a certain boy from his past. And Arthur is back in NYC, ready to take the theatre world by storm. He’s apart from his boyfriend, but it’s no big deal when ex-boyfriend Ben stumbles back into the kitchen. And while both try and shake off the past, they keep running into each other in the present. Uh oh, are their feelings going to rekindle and will they get back together? Is the universe giving them a do-over?

So I didn’t re-read the first book in preparation for this one, potential mistake, but I didn’t re-read the first Aristotle and Dante book for when that sequel came out and I was fine. What I remember from the first was that Arthur was a theatre geek – wanted to go see Hamilton on Broadway – and Ben was a writer and worked in a coffee shop I believe. In this book, Arthur has an internship at this off-Broadway place, and Ben is working retail – ooh, there’s one point where Ben gets yelled at by a customer because the customer is short on change for a deck of cards. I felt that bit in my bones. It’s like that Tumblr post: “If you’ve ever been a customer: Fuck you.”

This book opens on a chapter following Ben – it’s dual POV, by the way – but Ben is talking about this new Mario character and about how he (Ben) felt lost, like a box with its shipping label torn off, which was, if I’m not mistaken, a cute little call back to the way that Ben and Arthur met in the first book – at the post office, shipping a box of stuff to his ex. But Ben does mention at this point that he and Mario aren’t official boyfriends yet. Also, we find out that Ben’s boss in this book is his father at this shop. And when Ben is waiting for Mario to turn up, he sees something that reminds him of Arthur, and it’s very obvious that he’s still into/not over Arthur, so he goes to Arthur’s Instagram and, uh oh, turns out Arthur is coming to New York again.

We then switch to Arthur’s POV, and see him with his boyfriend, Mikey. The whole time, because Mikey sees that Ben has liked one of Arthur’s posts, and given that Arthur is going to New York, he’s threatened by Ben lol. And then chapter three pops back over to Ben where we see more uncertainty over his non-relationship relationship with Mario. He then runs into Arthur’s best-friend, because obviously, and then he mentions at the end of the chapter three that he’s going to move on with his future – and I won’t lie, this was one of those staring down the camera moments for me. But then immediately in the next chapter Arthur is FaceTiming Mikey, and Arthur’s best friend has to lie when she says, “Guess who I saw?” because, obviously, Mikey is extremely jealous. Set-up for mess methinks?

You could definitely tell who was writing which character. I remember from the first book, I read something that said each author was writing the character that had the same initials as the other author. So, Becky Albertalli was writing Arthur Seuss, and Adam Silvera was writing Ben Alejo. Now, in terms of when I say you could tell who was writing who, I mean this in the sense that the chapters written by Silvera felt a lot more brash, compared to those written by Albertalli. And I want to clarify, that’s not a negative, I’ve just noticed that Silvera’s writing tends to be more on the brash side. Originally, I was going to say rough, but I know rough is often associated with unfinished, and I didn’t want to insinuate Silvera’s writing is bad when it isn’t – Silvera is genuinely one of my favourite authors. The only way I can think to describe Silvera’s writing compared to Albertalli’s is that Silvera’s shows you a city at night – all the darker, more sordid sides – whereas Albertalli’s shows you that same city, but during the daytime. Like, I feel like I’m less likely to die, or get hurt, in a Becky Albertalli book, if that makes sense.

Anyway, Ben and Arthur run into each other, by which I mean Ben tells Arthur that he’s at the post office the two first met, and Arthur just happens to be two blocks away, so he goes to meet him. To be fair, there wouldn’t have been much book if the two didn’t meet up. And this was where I enjoyed the dual POV coming in – being able to see what was going on in both of their brains, you could see each of their anxieties about what went on throughout the book. It’s the case of once the two meet each other again, that’s when I feel like the book gets going. Something I’ll mention: There’s 460 pages of book, so there is a lot of it, but I think that’s because the authors wanted to really set up what had been going on with both of the character between the prequel and this one. Although, because of that, I did think that it does take a while for the book to really get going.

I will also say, this is one of those “things just happen” kinds of books. Like if someone were to ask me what the plot is, all I’d be able to say is that Arthur and Ben from the first book see each other again, and things just go from there, like there’s no one real big thing. A good comparison I can come up with is Here’s to Us is to What If It’s Us is what Still 2gether is to 2gether. I realise that, if you’ve not watched 2gether and Still 2gether, it doesn’t make much sense. In other words, it feels like an extension of the first part with, again, no one major plot point, just smaller things. The conflict and drama in this book kind of felt like one long stew being cooked that would occasionally boil a little too close to the rim, and then eventually the chef had to leave the kitchen, and that’s when the stew boiled over.

One active criticism I have with this book is that I was forced to read the word “derpy” in the year 2022. And it was an 18-year-old character who said it… Ma’am, would an 18-year-old say “derp” or “derpy” in 2022 – or even 2020/21 when, I’m assuming, this book was written? No.

And I think as my final point for this, I remember one big thing that divided readers of the first book was the ending – since Ben and Arthur mutually agreed to break up. From what I remembered, a bunch of people – not everyone, obviously – were unhappy with that. But you can definitely tell that the authors had that in mind when writing the end of this book. And I’m not going to spoil the ending of a book that’s been out for less than a month in the UK, but what I will say is: The ending appealed to how I like my endings, but they certainly didn’t need to go as heavy-handed with it as they did. It was very, if you’ve ever watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, when one of the competitors gets the critique that it’s good that they can go that far as they did, but the point would have been delivered just as well, if not better, had they pulled back a bit. The very first example I can think of is Miz Cracker in Cher: The Unauthorised Rusical. Like, I was happy with the ending, and overall, I enjoyed the book, but the ending was a lot.

My final, concluding, thought is that if you read the first book, or are a fan of either author, you’ll probably like this as well. I enjoyed it overall, even if it did get a bit saccharine at times.

Okay, bye!