Book Review :: Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler
Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler (☆ ☆ ☆)
I’m torn up about this book! I selected it as my April selection for my Book of the Month subscription. The cover is absolutely gorgeous - hands down my favorite book cover of the year! I don’t want to drag it, because there was much to love about it. But, BUT, I feel like it was positioned as a coming-of-age romance story, and the so-called romance that took up most of the book was…. brutal to watch!
The main character is Adelaide, an American with her own family drama and history, exploring her young adulthood in London. Adelaide is driven and lovely, a girls girl depicted as an amazing friend, student, and employee. Essentially, her life is derailed when she meets and begins a relationship with a boy named Rory, who can’t give her what she needs despite her trying ALL THE THINGS. He’s unavailable and unresponsive yet 100% willing to let Adelaide bend over backward to do nice things for him, all with a smile on her face. It brings up triggers from her past, and she spends a lot of her precious time evaluating the relationship with Rory.
Ultimately, I think I felt deeply uncomfortable seeing myself reflected in the ways I’ve been taught and culturally conditioned to believe that all the things I do and bring to a relationship - the things one is “supposed” to do to keep their partner happy - generally are for nothing when the partnership just isn’t progressing. I do appreciate that Adelaide is confident enough to ask for help and that her struggle shifts to knowing how to love and support herself.
Read if you like these books: Normal People by Sally Rooney or Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Book or show!)
