Books, Games, and Screaming Into The Void
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
As many reviewers have said, this book gets repetitive, rambly, and hard to follow at times.
I listened via audiobook and I found it a bit easier to treat it more as a “stream of consciousness” rather than a memoir.
Matthew Perry deserves his voice to be heard. Listen to his story. And then go out and do some good in his memory.
If this book had a face, I wouldn’t hesitate to punch it.
It has a few pros, like a POC character and not only that, a queer POC character. Another pro is the active seeking out of safe queer sex with the final pro is how sweet Aki’s Dad handled Aki coming out to him as bisexual.
Other than that? There’s a boatload of petty drama such as the characters constantly lying to each other and Aki even dumps her best friend because of her budding romantic relationship with Christa. WHO THE HELL EVEN DOES THAT? Your friendships can very well coexist along side your romantic relationships.
If they’re not lying to each other, they’re off screwing each other, or at least thinking about it. They even go as far to break into their host family’s guest house in order to screw just because the power was terrible there and there wasn’t much of a risk of being caught. There’s quite a few non-explicit sex scenes, but they’re worth mentioning if you’re not looking for sex in your romance reads.
All in all I wanted to throw this book across the room on several occasions and I’m honestly so glad I persevered and as such it is DONE AND OUT OF MY LIFE.
As someone who also suffers from severe agoraphobia, anxiety and depression, i went into this book with excitement. I also loved how Louise handled Norah’s relationship with Luke and that it didn’t go the way of GIRL FALLS IN LOVE, POOF MENTAL ILLNESS CURED! It went the way it is expected to go, your significant other becomes mindful of your limitations and works with them. I’ve seen previous reviews touch on how quickly Norah and Luke’s relationship progressed and how “unrealistic” it was. While I CAN agree with this, i feel that if it was made in more realistic terms, the book would drag on for many more pages, thus boring the shit out the reader.
Overall, Under Rose-Tainted Skies I feel accurately outlines the struggles one may face with agoraphobia along with several other mental illnesses. It’s a lot more than “not being able to leave your house” and Louise does a great job of that.
