The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Lauren Myracle is usually an author whose work I love. SHINE was one of the most important books in my life. Now, obviously, not all books can be great. But this was so disappointing, especially coming from one of my favourite YA authors. It was sexist, promoted some extremely disturbing ideas(reminiscent of TWILIGHT issues, in fact, in terms of possessiveness and inability to be alone), and was just not well written.
The writing itself was choppy and felt very weird. This is hard to explain, but it just didn't flow in any way, almost as if there was no editor at work. It felt like a first fanfiction attempt in some parts. The characters aren't developed very well; Wren reads like she's 12 and paper thin. There's no strength to any of the characters, and everything is very flat.
I could have dealt with the writing style if it wasn't for the rampant sexism. Wren (and Tessa, judging from the conversation/lecture she has with Charlie the night Charlie and Wren are to have sex) seem to think that men need to take charge. Wren has no ideas of her own; everything depends on Charlie, and when he hurts her, she childishly shuts him down completely. It really shocked me she shut him out after sending him a sexy picture and when he said he had to help his family, she STILL did that. (I know he was lying, but it was a terrible thing for her to do if she KNEW there was a family emergency!) She defers to him in everything - he does a similar thing, but it was just a terrible feeling. The whole Guatemala issue was also horrifying to me; one or the other of them had to go in order for them to stay together? She didn't understand why he didn't want to throw his plan away for her, and then HE DID? I couldn't believe that, and it completely belittled long distance relationships. You wouldn't have "broken up by default" - you should have discussed the options and decided the best course of action. As someone who has been in a long distance relationship for four years, when people discount the possibility of them, it irks me. It's also completely unrealistic. Neither of them should have changed all their plans for the other - ESPECIALLY when Wren decided she wasn't going to go to Guatemala and stay PURELY FOR HIM.
The intense slut shaming of Starrla also bothered me tremendously, particularly because her character was never given a chance. She obviously had a bad home life and there were many allusions to the issues in her life, but we never saw her get credit for them. Sleeping with many people doesn't mean anything; but Myracle made it seem as though that was the sum total of her character. Charlie did it, Wren was terrible about her, everyone dumped on her and focused on her supposed promiscuity. (While never getting true evidence.)
I had a lot of the same issues with his as I did with Twilight: the dependency they have on each other, leading to a sense that they don't think they can live without each other; the absolute lack of communication between the two; the lack of consent at some points, that is made to seem like it's not lack of consent, but meant to be "racy." The possessiveness also bothered me, though it came more from Wren. She literally asked him to stop talking to Starrla. And both of them would panic about being in any kind of fight, and instead of talking about it, would just ignore it. NONE of these are hallmarks of a healthy relationship. Absolutely none. And condomless sex should not be encouraged, just because Wren was on birth control - birth control is not the be all and end all of pregnancy prevention. It's not perfect. Kudos for getting him tested - but why wasn't Wren also getting tested as well? Doesn't matter if she's a virgin. All the responsibility fell on Charlie there. It was not a good thing to relate to younger readers.
There was absolutely no kindness shown to anyone who wasn't in a straight relationship, identifying as cis. There was NO room for anyone else; and yes, that's who the protagonists were, but all of the conversations regarding that kind of thing really bothered me. (Man and a woman, at all times; it wasn't about the sex, but rather the societal expectations there.)
Something else stuck with me - the fact that Wren was told, by Tessa, that penis is not a nice or palatable word. WHAT THE HELL. IT'S A TERM. I personally hate the word dick and cock - penis is fine. It is absolutely ridiculous to tell young readers that there's something wrong with that word. I'm all for speaking in whatever way you want - I'm a big fan of swearing, see Stephen Fry for reasoning, though of course not in professional environments and certain situations - but you shouldn't be forcing certain words on people. That really bothered me.
All in all, it was extremely disappointing for me.
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