CW: death, gore, car accident, grief, homophobia, transphobia, body-shaming

I wasn’t a huge fan of We Are The Ants and checked the audiobook version of this novel out on a whim. Unfortunately, The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried didn’t work for me.

First, I was extremely bored. The story dragged and not much happened. I considered DNFing multiple times, but I persevered. Spoiler alert: I wish I’d stopped. It didn’t get better, and I kept watching the audiobook clock, waiting for the end and wondering why it was still going. Maybe that’s bad of me, but I’m here to be honest, so. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The end was too open for my tastes. Hutchinson came up with an interesting premise and ultimately, only resolved half of it. I stuck with this story because I was curious, and when the audiobook ended, sans explanation, I felt cheated. It felt like a waste of time, sorry not sorry.

While I don’t think reading a different format would’ve made a difference, the audiobook narrators didn’t help. They did fine with their respective protagonist, but the other voices in the chapters sounded fake and occasionally grated on my nerves.

I didn’t like Dino or July. Both were stubborn and annoying, and so many problems could’ve been solved by not holding grudges and listening to the other person. This story takes place in the summer before senior year, and both of them repeatedly bring up incidents from sixth grade or sophomore year. In my opinion, your friendship would be stronger if you didn’t hoard grudges like children hoard candy.

July is also a problematic character, and I’m not sure why. She’s a cis, straight girl, but made jokes and generalizations about the gay community and called Dino’s trans boyfriend his girlfriend. Additionally, she knew that Dino was uncomfortable with his body, but made fun of him for it. Even though he called her out on it, I’m not sure why it was necessary. Hutchinson could’ve pulled off the same character arc — a self-centered, insensitive girl realizing the error of her ways — without including the problematic jokes and comments.

Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but I didn’t like what happened with Dino and July’s friendship. They were estranged friends trying to mend their relationship before July died for good, though they weren’t sure when that would be. I wish Dino had told July that enough was enough and cut her off, because she was a toxic friend. But they decided they’d both been bad friends and needed to apologize, when in my opinion, the only thing Dino did was call July out.

I fully believe that Rafi, Dino’s wonderful, supportive trans boyfriend, was the best character and deserved more page time. Their relationship was rocky until the end, but once they were finally together, I loved their dynamic.

As a random final thought, I liked the Hairspray references. It’s one of my favorite musicals and I’m glad to see YA characters appreciating it.

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried wasn’t a terrible novel, but admittedly, it’s one of my least favorite books of the year thus far. Despite my issues, I do plan to read some of Hutchinson’s other work, and hopefully enjoy that more.