My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
(NOTE: This extended Book Bite includes Plot Spoilers)
For 3/4ths of its page count, The Friend Zone perfectly balances its breezy romance plot with heavier issues surrounding chronic illness and infertility and is a delight to read.
The main problem here is what I call The Every Episode of Friends Plotting Problem™: all tension could be resolved before the first commercial break if our protagonists (who are described time and time again as having deep insight into one another) would connect the dots and have a quick, honest conversation. In this case, from 1/3rds of the book onward, all Kristen needs to say is, "I have intensely painful uterine fibroids and am having a hysterectomy" and, voila! the conflict is solved. Enjoy your sex-filled happy ever after you crazy kids. But because the solution here is a) pre-ordained, and b) so simple, the plot throws halfhearted obstructions to said conversation. There's Kristen's overbearing witch of a mother. There's Kristen's ex, more in love with the idea of who she was rather than who she is.
For 3/4ths of its page count, The Friend Zone perfectly balances its breezy romance plot with heavier issues surrounding chronic illness and infertility and is a delight to read.
The meet cute is actually cute! The chemistry is fizzy and exothermic! I don't even care that our plot--Firefighter (and massive penis-haver) Josh rear-ends dog boutique owner Kristen only to find (gasp!) they're the best man/maid of honor at their mutual friends' wedding!--is something straight out of a romance plot generator. When the hook is executed as well as it is here, disbelief is suspended to skyscraper levels that no amount of tropey shenanigans can bring down. There’s deliciously villainous side characters and just the right amount of pop culture. What's not to root for?
The main problem here is what I call The Every Episode of Friends Plotting Problem™: all tension could be resolved before the first commercial break if our protagonists (who are described time and time again as having deep insight into one another) would connect the dots and have a quick, honest conversation. In this case, from 1/3rds of the book onward, all Kristen needs to say is, "I have intensely painful uterine fibroids and am having a hysterectomy" and, voila! the conflict is solved. Enjoy your sex-filled happy ever after you crazy kids. But because the solution here is a) pre-ordained, and b) so simple, the plot throws halfhearted obstructions to said conversation. There's Kristen's overbearing witch of a mother. There's Kristen's ex, more in love with the idea of who she was rather than who she is.
With all hurdles cleared and still a hundred-plus pages to go, The Friend Zone hits a whiplash tone shift in a side character's accident and death. Which would be fine except when Josh and Kristen finally have the conversation, Josh (of course) says he doesn't care. Which would be fine but Kristen still turns him away. Which would be fine except we were supposed to see, through literally one scene with Kristen's mother, a lurking ex, and a few references to OCD habits here and there, that Kristen has clinically deficient self esteem. Which would be fine except Jimenez then bungles her ending to the point she includes an afterword to say what she actually intended for the ending to mean.
In book centered on chronic pain and infertility, to have Kristen get miraculously pregnant after one session of unprotected sex (perhaps owed to Josh's penis, often described magically) feels like the worst kind of cop-out.
The Friend Zone is a 100-meter dash that jumps out to world record time and literally trips over its own feet in the last 10 meters. Despite itself, The Friend Zone still fishes on the medal platform. Not gold, no no, but a respectable bronze. Jimenez's deft writing, likeable leads and often pitch-perfect romantic tension make The Friend Zone mostly enjoyable, despite itself.
View all my reviews
View all my reviews
Afterword:
The phrase "hooded eyes" is used so much, y'all. If the The Friend Zone drinking game rules dictate a shot every time we hear about Josh's "hooded eyes," then we're all gonna be real hung over tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment