How to End a Love Story – 5/5 ✩
How to End a Love Story is a gripping love story about Helen Zhang and Grant Shepard, two writers whose lives are inextricably connected after a tragic accident in high school. Helen and Grant haven’t spoken to each other in a decade, and when they find themselves working together on the same project, they are constantly reminded of the pain of the past and the fact that there is also an unexplainable connection between them now. There are so many reasons they will never work as a couple… but there’s so many reasons why they will too.
This is hands down one of my favorite reads of the year. Kuang has a gift for being able to create dynamic characters that lift themselves off the page; they were dynamic and witty and each had an unforeseen depth to them.
Judging solely off the cover, this book looks like it will be light and fluffy, and while it did have those light and fluffy moments, the book also had serious, and at times heavy, themes sprinkled throughout it. I think an author has to have great talent to achieve both of those things and Kuang succeeded with flying colors.
Helen and Grant are two very different people on the page, but they compliment each other so well. They both are seeking love and connection, but whether they realize it or not, they both are also still dealing with the aftermath of what happened in high school and it’s impacting the ways in which they can (or can’t) love. With that being said, Kuang did an incredible job exploring the different ways in which we grieve. She shows that we don’t all grieve in the same way and also makes it a point to show that even though we think we’re the ones that have a right to grieve the most, there’s another party in the equation as well and it can take time and patience to understand the other person’s perspective and, when appropriate, forgive them for that.
The romance that develops between this unlikely pair is wholesome and loving. Their love had me in my FEELS and seeing the way that these two were able to grow with each other was so special. I was swooning over Helen and Grant the.entire.book. We see situationships all the time in our real lives, and the skill with which Kuang was able to so accurately depict a situationship on the page is so admirable. Plus, her characters were so lovable, especially Grant, who I felt was the definition of a golden retriever boyfriend.
I loved Helen, but I felt like I completely sympathized (and empathized) with Grant throughout the entire book, whereas there were moments with Helen when I wish I could’ve shaken her and made her open her eyes a little bit more. Grant is probably one of my favorite book boyfriends of all time. I really loved the part in the hospital toward the end of the novel when he said he would rather have a fraction of her than none of her at all. Even though I already knew how much Grant loved her, this reaffirmed how much he truly cared and I loved how he later brought this conversation up again at the end of the novel.
I also thought this book was very well done because of its exploration of the industry. We see a lot of books about writers, but because Yulin Kuang is a screenwriter and director herself, she was able to include details about the industry I don’t feel other books do and I really appreciated that. I truly can’t believe that this is her debut novel; this is one of the most well done novels I’ve read and it blows my mind to think that this is the first time Kuang has written her own book.
Something else I really enjoyed was the depiction of Helen’s family and what it can mean to be a child of immigrants and a child of Asian parents. I think there are a lot of stereotypes out there about how Asian parents treat their children, and while not every family is going to share the same qualities, I think Helen’s family was a very interesting family to immerse ourselves in. One side of my family is Asian and one is not and I found it quite interesting to be able to draw parallels (or spot differences) in how our families treat us.
Overall, I can’t recommend this book enough! And, if you’re a fan of tropes like enemies to lovers, close proximity, and novels where he falls first, then this book is for you!
Anchored Musings 