I thought this was... okay? Not a bad book by far, and quite a few funny and poignant moments alike, but I admit I kept getting distracted by other reads. I suspect I never quite connected with the main character. Related to him, yes; Wren's messy brain is totally relatable, and I could empathize with his post-college struggles of figuring out his life, but I kept running into trouble I couldn't quite put a finger on. Maybe it's the fact that movies are supposed to be his big passion, and yet I never quite *felt* that? I don't even know why. He thought a lot about movies, and in movies terms. The plot is, in a way, quite movies-focused (or, well, drive-in cinema-focused and one-specific-movie-focused). But... huh. I don't know. Maybe I expected his way of thinking to be more visual? For him to more often spot not just the shadows of narrative beats in real life, but also the more visual medium-specific details? I think maybe it was something from that area.

The romance was quite and so slow-burn even I sometimes wanted to speed things along a little bit. But mostly, I appreciated the slow development! It was nice to see the leads rekindle their friendship before they went further. I also enjoyed the demi rep, although I agree with another reviewer that there was a tiny bit of an "after school special" to that one revelatory talk. Funnily enough, I think the effect would be mitigated if it wasn't a "Congratulations, you're probably demi!" one, but a broader, "have you ever thought you might find your spot under the ace umbrella" one. On one hand, maybe that would make it even more of a "let's pause the narrative and have a fun lecture" moment, on the other hand, depends on how it would be handled. Another thing that felt a bit "not enough" for me was Derick's entire poor rich boy arc. Yes, to be fair, some foreshadowing was present from his very first in-person appearance on the page! But it got shoved into the background somehow (maybe just because Wren, for all his fixation on Derick, wasn't paying enough attention?), and so it felt like Derick kept the issues he was facing too close to his chest for 3/4 of the book and then started dishing them out all at once.

The secondary characters and the plot threads involving them were where the book really shined for me. I adored Alice and her story. I really liked Wren's interactions with his boss and with Oscar. And Wren's housemates were adorables and the problems and solutions in his relationship with them, especially Mateo, were super relatable and well-handled. I also enjoyed the parts focused on the importance of clear communication and all the scenes where various characters admitted to being wrong and found ways to move forward from it—such a good message to send, and it felt organic to the story every time.