Jess

A second hollanov edit has hit my tumblr

So i just read the book at the beginning of the month, and i really liked it. I liked the focus on Ilya's perspective, and I liked that despite the miscommunication and the travel, it stays clear that neither shane nor ilya are the problem in the relationship fully.

I know a lot of people get really stuck on the way shane is written in this book. Shane often times comes off as very selfish in this book, but i dont dislike that about him. It is very clear to me that in the parts of shane's pov that we do see, he doesn't realize that what he's been doing has been hurting Ilya.

As a highly masking autistic person myself, I find shane to be very relatable. Shane is trying to do what he believe's is best for the both of them, even though what he is doing is not helping Ilya. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue, and they could talk it out. But unfortunately, Ilya's own communication style clashes with shane's and thus we get the main problems in the long game. Shane cannot tell that Ilya isn't doing well, and Ilya thinks shane is being selfish and controlling. The only reason the book seems to be on ilya's side is because it's mostly Ilya's pov