Imagine, if you will:

- A protagonist more unlikable than Quentin from Lev Grossman's The Magicians but with none of the authorial awareness that the character is an insufferable POV read, and none of the excuses that a troubled adolescence could have softened.

- Messaging with all the subtlety of a frozen paintball to the rib

-A deeply unnecessary romantic subplot that tries to create parallels between the protagonist and LI and some deceased grandparents.

-A last minute 'Your parents are people too' message for booktok moms that is deeply out of place. I don't really know what she was trying to do with this story beat, honestly. It's such a disjointed thing to throw in there

- Poly representation that only exists to create unnecessary drama and somehow make our protagonist even more unlikable

As much pretentious nonce as Jodi Picoult shoved into The Book of Two Ways, it is a superior book in every conceivable way, and then certainly a few more I haven't thought of. Go read that if the concept of death doulas interests you.