This felt so flat. I think one problem is that this book is described as "funny" multiple times in reviews, but I didn't know that going in. I don't really get funny books. The humor just goes over my head and I'm left feeling like it was some very strange storytelling. Perhaps this book is hilarious. But it mostly just seemed sad to me. I don't see where the humor would come from. But I am a terrible person to have an opinion on this because this is how I always feel about "funny" books.

Maybe I shouldn't say this after all the covid "quarantines," but the protocols felt shockingly lax. There's a deadly virus (which seems to be a fictionalized ebola type deal, unless I'm completely stupid) and there's basically no quarantine? She flies home commercial with no PPE in a crowded airport. Like she's supposed to stay inside with no contact, but it's totally fine to hang out with her family even though she has her own flat. And it's totally fine for random people to join, they just can't leave. Unless they do and that's mostly fine too. Even after living through this, I still can't wrap my head around it. So maybe I am just completely stupid lol.

I hated all the over the top coincidences. People run into random strangers in busy public places (airports, for one) and then wouldn't you know it, that person turns out to be related in some way! What a coincidink! If it was one funny coincidence, maybe I could have handled it, but it was all of them. So many, each absolutely ridiculous.

The characters were all so flat. It wasn't that they were shallow people, although some of them were, but their character development was so superficial. They had only the most surface level motivations, nothing deep or complex about any of them. I didn't necessarily hate them as people so much as I hated having to spend time in their vacant perspectives.

I was entertained by this, though. Like for all my negatives, it kept me reading along and wanting to see how it all turned out. Which includes a lot of depressing stuff, in case that's not what you're looking for. But even all the sad things felt so hollow to me. Like the characters almost didn't seem to care. So why should I?

I dunno. I wouldn't say don't read it because if it's meant to be funny, I was never going to be a fan. It just genuinely confuses me because I didn't realize people described it that way until I read the back when I was two thirds through and thinking about how depressing this was. Sometimes I feel so wildly off in my perceptions of books.

*Received an ARC for honest review. Cannot comment on any changes made between the ARC and the publication of the completed book.*