Never thought that I would think of hostage situations as charming.

This was equal parts charming, funny, thought-provoking, and-heart warming. Full of substance and underlying discussions on parenthood, marriage, friendship, community, social interactions, suicide, mental health,... everything. Without making it feel heavy to read.

— overall thoughts: 4.5 —
⇢ trigger warnings// attempted suicide, hostage situations

“it's so hard to think of the words when all you really wanna say is, I can tell you're hurting.”

That main timeline happens because of a hostage situation during an apartment viewing and even though that in itself might not sound appealing to most, that's really all I think you should know. Is it basically stockholm syndrome? I don't know, read to find out. The themes and discussions were really the selling point of the whole book, and how it was masterfully integrated into the plot.

Incredibly humorous because god forbid that there be another perspective buyer (if you read it, you know). I love that there is something here for everyone. For anxious people and those that think that they aren't.

“most people are just looking for something to cling to, something to fight for.”

It truly is incredibly well-written with absurdity that makes sense. If this was a movie, it would be a comfort movie that I would rewatch again and again. Because sometimes we don't need a strong male and female lead to go off on an adventure across an unnamed land, we just need a couple of friends to eat pizza with in an apartment looking over a bridge while watching some fireworks.


I was pleasantly surprised at the details of how each respective characters were acting that went into the apartment plot, it was all entirely believable. The characters were charming not because they were perfect and saying all the right things, but because of how they reflected sets of people that you might actually find (at an actual apartment viewing for one thing but also) in your own life.

In some way, you get to know the characters in a way that they just grow on you. I also love the way the characters were connected behind the scenes of the hostage taking and we kind of knew it before they did.

It has a simple plot written with intricate details that made it that much more endearing and cozy. This story was really about so many different things that it's hard to breakdown properly but I felt extremely satisfied with my reading journey. There are even short chapters for those of you that enjoy those.

“What we think a story is about, isn’t what they are about at all.”

And that’s why it was exactly my kind of story.

My favorite aspect of the mystery was how it didn’t leave us until the last 20% of the story for the big plot twist and instead misleads us at the beginning of almost every chapter but tying it back at the end of the same chapter. It was just absolutely brilliant. It kept the pacing going and the reading experience exciting. I finished this within 24 hours.

I somewhat saw the biggest twist coming but I didn't know exactly how it would turn out. And all the other mini plot twists blew my mind. The way everything connected and came together was so well executed that it brought happy tears to my eyes for once.

↣ Read this when you need someone, or perhaps when you're a little sad. Actually, read it right now because we're in a pandemic and we're all a little sad. As the story tries to tell us, we're not all that different, we're all just trying the best that we can. ↢