Book Review: The Friend Zone

The Friend Zone
Abby Jimenez
2/5

I've done a lot more contemporary romances this year than I've done in the past, I'm on a slight binge, but like I'm pretty disappointed with this one. Kristen is a young entrepreneur about to move in with her long time boyfriend, who she hasn't been together with for more than two weeks since they started dating two years ago. Josh just had a bad (or at least it was supposed to seem bad) break up and has written women off as problematic and not worth the trouble. So obviously neither of them should feel the insane chemistry of their meet-cute, followed by the prolonged period of time they spend as the best man and maid of honor to their respective best friends, but they obviously do.

I was already having trouble with major plot elements. Mainly the "not like other girls" trope, and the whole idolizing a man that just does what I feel like anyone should do for their partner in need. Literally, Josh calls Kristen a unicorn for drinking beer and eating what she wants and not being into the typical romantic bs. I hate that because like, let's not generalize women and force them to adopt typically male characteristics in order to be tolerable. Just let her be a character without forcing us to hear about how special she is for doing what she wants to do.

I can't exactly say one star, I did finish it and there were some parts that were funny. I also think it's important to talk about reproductive health and making choices and not settling for something just based on the limitations you feel. But oh my gosh, for a book advertised on these premises it all just went so surface-level. Half the book was probably Kristen just complaining about how Josh could never be with her, like how he couldn't make that choice right now. Yet she could make the choice to ditch him entirely? I guess it's understandable, being such a sensitive topic and so personal, but also what a waste.

I'm going to go hardcore spoilers right now. If you want to read the book at all just stop here. The ending was messed up. They used a character's death to push their plot forwards and it was cheap and honestly horrible. There are better ways of pushing revelations than just dramatically killing people off, it was frankly so tacky. They didn't deal with Sloane's grief, they just pushed on to their happy little miracle family. They got married after literally no dating, they just dove right in. They let the abusive mother back into their lives and the life of their child and that was also so horrible. Like I said, deep issues were just treated as surface level and it felt like nothing was truly ever closed.

Anyways, not a great book. Cute premise, potential for dealing with serious issues that a lot of us deal with, but just totally missed the mark in the end. Wouldn't recommend at all.