On starting this book, I was immediately captivated by the writing, and intrigued by cool concepts - both the reading feelings from books, and the story within a story (the latter of which I'm a sucker for). However, I have had to stop reading it because what the actual fuck??
 
My first red flag, is that the present-day parts of the book are set in 1984. Ashlyn mentions seeing a copy of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, a book that was published 5 years later in 1989... Such an EASY fact to check, yet clearly no-one involved in the book gave a shit.  
 
My biggest gripe with the book, however, is that Hemi is such a goddamn CREEP, yet his actions are only ever seen as romantic?? Not just by Belle, but by Ashlyn, and according to reviews I've read every single other person who’s read this book? I'm truly baffled. Without ever having seen Belle, he manipulates his way into TWO parties he shouldn't be at, had completely deranged obsessive and intense thoughts about her by the third time they met, and knew WAY too much about her life as if he'd been researching and spying on her for years. And it's all viewed as romantic????? 
 
When I started getting creep vibes, I thought the book was going to be about that - a creepy stalker guy preying on a sheltered, emotionally abused woman. A woman who surely can't know what she actually wants in life or properly stand up for herself because she's only ever been treated as an object. And he’s just doing the EXACT same thing to her and she doesn't even notice. What the fuck is going on here??
 
I cannot read any more of this awful tripe. If the point of the book was commentary about his creepiness, good, I would have continued reading. But the fact that we're meant to think this is romantic is truly depraved. People need to get a grip.