“Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds.”
-We Are Inevitable
This is such a cute story! It’s short, sweet, and packed with lots of themes that are perfect for young adult readers.
Aaron’s family has always owned Bluebird Bookstore, but when the inevitable happens, it’s now just Aaron and his father, Ira, keeping the store afloat. To Aaron, it’s inevitable that the store is failing, because inevitable is synonymous to unavoidable grief and let down. Because everything up til this point has inevitably let him down.
Aaron is a prickly character trying to do what he thinks is best. He loves his family dearly but is struggling to overcome the grief and anger he feels towards his brother, Sandy, for leaving. Honestly, I would highly recommend this to any teen you might know suffering with lose or grief. As Forman does a great job of articulating the different ways people grieve. I wouldn’t say Aaron is a particularly likable character, but he has his heart in the right place, he just needs a little nudge to thrive. Which is where all our wonderful side characters come in.
All of our side characters are so well developed, with unique personalities and struggles. Foreman is great about being inclusive and introduces characters who are: addicts, survivors, suffering from chronic diseases, explores different sexualities, and gender norms.
For me the side characters were the best part. Chad, is optimistic, and brings a lot of humor into the storyline. While, ‘The Lumberjacks’ especially Ike, are a reminder of how small towns rally to help their own. These two mixed with Ira’s flightiness are gold for me.
My only comment/compliant, is that I really was looking forward to getting to know Hannah’s character better. Based on the description I thought she’d play a much more significant role and have more of an emotional connection with the reader. I didn’t hate her character, but I would have liked a bit more from her.
Chad on the other hand, is a stellar character. Very into Chad’s character.
I adored this YA book and honestly flew through it. For being such a relatively short read, Forman does a great job of capturing emotion and tackling grief, change, and addiction.
All the stars for this story that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
We Are Inevitable is out now. Huge thank you to Viking Books and Penguin Teen for my advanced copy for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.
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