there's more to life than reading books

I found this style of writing to be over-indulgent on the author's part, keeping me at arm's length from the story, never really allowing me to connect with any of the characters, including the MC, Matt.

The writing is overly detailed, descriptive and filled with so many metaphors that I constantly found myself skimming and losing interest in the plot. Many interactions between characters and recurring events in the book felt contrived, purposefully trying to manipulate an emotional reaction from me.

The dialogue between the young friends didn't sound authentic, was often stilted, and just reminded me that I was reading a story. Rather than getting lost in the conversations between friends, imagining myself among them, I was querying whether young people really speak like that to each other.

The book is lacking in character and relationship development. We are told quite often how Matt and Lola feel about each other, without any genuine build up to their relationship. Matt professes his love for Lola constantly, almost to the point of blind, desperate obsession. Without Lola life is simply devoid of all meaning, all worth, and he is whittled down to nothing. I found their Romeo and Juliet-type tragic love a bit nauseating, TBH.

This point is irrelevant to my rating but the author needs to tone down on the use of exclamation marks, they were so prevalent it was distracting and they weren't used correctly half the time.