A review and ramble about I'm So (Not) Over You

 

So, first up we must thank Twitter for teaching me about this book’s existence. I feel like authors on Twitter, and the recommended tab on *mazon is where I find out about a lot of books. And Twitter is where I found out about I’m So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson. I do want to mention that this post will contain no spoilers about the book since, as of me writing this, it’s not been out for even a few weeks.

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

Anyway, our blurbaroni pizza says that it’s been months since aspiring journalist Kian Andrews has heard from his ex-boyfriend, Hudson Rivers (what a name), but an urgent text has them meeting up at a café. Hudson has a favour to ask Kian, and that is the be his fake boyfriend while his parents are in town, and Kian agrees. Kian then ends up as Hudson’s date to the wedding of the season, and if Kian goes, he’ll help Hudson preserve appearances and he’ll get the opportunity to network with some of the biggest names in media. But their fake relationship starts to feel like it could be more than a means to an end, and maybe they need to fact-check their feelings. So, it’s a fake dating book. I, personally, like the fake dating trope. Hell, my favourite book of the year so far, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating, is the same trope. It’s just that this book is the adult version of fake dating.

Still, chapter one has us jumping right in, Kian has already agreed to meet with Hudson, and Kian’s friend, Divya, is dragging him for that decision – rightly so. Then when Hudson turns up, even though it has been three months since the two have seen each other, you can tell that Kian isn’t okay, because he goes into a lot of little details about Hudson. However, he does then shortly admit he’s still in love with him. Chapter three tells us that Hudson never actually told his parents that he and Kian broke up, and the reason he asked to meet up with Kian is that he needs Kian to cover for him at this dinner with his family. And in exchange for pretending to be his boyfriend again, he told Kian that he would put him in contact with this guy that could give him the big journalistic career break he’s been looking for, and also put in a good word with him. Also, since I’ve not mentioned it yet, Hudson is part of the family that was, I believe, one of the biggest liquor companies in the South.

Now, I mean this as no shade to the last two books I read, but I feel like I can tell when I’m reading a book that’s good. I know that’s a stupid statement to make on its own, but you know what I mean? There’s this vibe that you get when you’re reading where you’re just like, “Yeah, this is objectively good.” Like, there are book that have a lot of words, yet never actually say anything. But with this book, it felt like everything counted – including every time Kian disappeared into his own head, going back and forth about how he thought about Hudson. And all the times he made references to things that felt like things someone maybe five years older would make. But everything mattered.

To continue on that point of going back and forth, I feel like Kian did that a lot during the first chunk of the book, but that’s fine. I’d expect him to. His ex has just come back into his life, and he’s got all these feelings still inside. So even while he’s going about his day he’s going to be struggling while he figures out how he feels. And the whole time, he’s reminding himself that everything he’s doing is a business arrangement, even as Hudson lays it on pretty thick, pretty much in the name of “making it look realistic”. And as we went on, he gets more integrated, and the lines get more and more blurry as to what Kian feels.

To focus in on Kian for a moment, he mentions that he was born in 1999 at one point during the book, which means he was just about in my generation. And that’s the generation that’s not Gen Z, but also not Millennial, that one that sits weirdly between the two, and because of that, I loved seeing Kian honestly flirt between them both. I will say, there were things that were very Gen Z in the book, but then there were a good few moments where I was like, “Is Kian one of those people who refers to dogs and puppers or doggos?” Like, even though he was born in 1999, he definitely had some Millennial tendencies, I can’t lie. But it definitely wasn’t the case of an author writing a character younger than them (which in itself isn’t a bad thing) and not knowing how that age of person talks – like how it was in Her Royal Highness.

To touch on the side characters of this book. I think the book had a pretty small cast. Like, a lot of people got mentioned, but not many of them get expanded on. I don’t mean this as a bad thing at all, because the ones that just got mentioned were more or less just that, just people in passing. The ones that stuck around, like Kian’s friend Divya, and Hudson’s sister, Olivia, they were the ones that stuck around and got the expansion that they needed. I think I appreciated that, just because I’m a person who tends to like smaller casts, over larger ones. For Divya and Olivia, Divya got her expansion in the first half, because it was almost like the first half of the book was about Kian, so she was there, and the second half was about Hudson, so that’s when Olivia got her expansion. But Olivia… oof. I get why she was the way that she was… And this might be because I’m the kind of person that cries if someone ever raises their voice at me, but I didn’t really like her until the end of the book, because that’s the point where she was really given the expansion that she needed. I realise phrasing it like that is so vague, but I can’t say it any other way without spoiling anything.

For this last bit, it’s the smaller points that sort of just sit on their own.

There were a few moments where I was like, “Hmm… this isn’t realistic.” And I was right in thinking that for those moments. But I only thought those moments were unrealistic because I’m not rich, and I’ll give one example, without trying to spoil anything. Hudson tells Kian to meet him downstairs, outside of the place they’re staying, and when Kian gets outside, there’s just this fancy go-kart that could seat two people… And who just has a go-kart that two people could fit on? The answer is a rich person.

Something that I feel like books don’t often utilise as well as they should is the beginning and endings of chapters. Because those first and last lines have the potential to be so powerful, and the dolls just don’t use them. And I make this point, because it was something that I noticed this book actually did. I’ll give the one, from the end of the first chapter, with no context: “There’s nothing sexy about tomatoes”. That’s a solid line. Like, tell me that isn’t a good line… You can’t.

Finally, you know that joke of how people pack underwear for a trip like they’re going to piss themselves every day? This book uses that joke, and I don’t care how many times I see it, I will always laugh at it, because, to me, it’s one of those things that’s just universally funny. This was a funny book.

But that’s it for this post. I was so happy to finally read a book that I actually and genuinely enjoyed, since I can’t say that’s been the case for the two before this. So, I’m hoping that this book is the start of a series of highs in terms of what I’m reading.

Okay, bye!