Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars

Genre: Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Romance

Call it What You Want by Alissa DeRogatis is the anti-romcom of every Gen-Z/Millennial cusp’s nightmare. I don’t think the author’s debut novel was perfect by any means. But it was an incredibly cathartic read as someone who’s unfortunately been through similar (non)relationships. 

This story follows Sloane and Ethan as they ping pong around each other in a turbulent situationship that neither of them could let go of. Many describe this book as an almost love story, but I actually highly disagree.

I think in many ways this was a self-love story. The entire story this girl makes horrific decisions in the name of this mediocre man, and it’s like watching a car crash. As someone who is guilty of falling in love with the potential of someone, I think it evoked a level of emotions in me that it would not have otherwise because the writing was shaky at best.

When reading this book you may say, “Hey, I want more dialogue between the main characters”, but the whole point is that Sloane is in love with the idea of Ethan, not in love with Ethan. She is in love with a version of him that she created in her head, a version that is the best version of himself. Not who he actually was. My therapist told me a while ago, “When someone shows you who they are, believe it”. This whole book was reiterating that.

Where this book lost me was, I wanted her to choose herself more, I wanted to see actual growth rather than just like falling into her job. I also think the writer made her cheat on her partner with Ethan was rather unproductive for the storyline. At first, you feel bad for her, then you realize this is all self-perpetuated, and she’s literally just stupid. Like grow a backbone, stand up, girl, he does not care if you live or die. She became insufferable, to a non-redeeming extent, which made me far less empathetic. I understand going through hard parts of life, but that’s not an excuse for you to treat those around you, those who care about you, poorly.

I would say read this if you want to be enraged or feel all the feelings of an avoidant attachment relationship in like 300 pages, but otherwise this is a pass because it is nothing groundbreaking, writing or story-wise.