Seven Days in June in On the same page

Jul 17, 2022 Abby rated it liked it

Shelves: bipoc, romance, smut, exes-reunited

(3.5 stars.)
"The publishing industry has a hard time processing Black characters unless we're suffering...We're expected to write about trauma, oppression, or slavery, because those are easily marketable Black tropes. Publishers struggle to see us as having the same banal, funny, whimsical experiences that every human has."

Seven Days in June follows the lives of Eva and Shane, both well-established writers that are struggling to write again. Both haunted by their pasts, they find themselves just (3.5 stars.)
"The publishing industry has a hard time processing Black characters unless we're suffering...We're expected to write about trauma, oppression, or slavery, because those are easily marketable Black tropes. Publishers struggle to see us as having the same banal, funny, whimsical experiences that every human has."

Seven Days in June follows the lives of Eva and Shane, both well-established writers that are struggling to write again. Both haunted by their pasts, they find themselves just trying to survive in the environment they've landed themselves in, whether that be creator of a black fantasy-romance series that started as an escape and has now turned into a prison, or writing to escape inner pain, just to find the pain was what enabled the writing. Yet, when the two are thrown together after fifteen years of separation, there's no denying their history, or their chemistry. And it's these two things that might finally break Evan and Shane free, or just break them all together.

All right, starting with the positives of this book: Eva and Shane. These two have such rich backstories and psychologies. They're both suffering souls branded by their pasts, just looking for a little human contact; someone they can finally trust. Eva specifically suffers from an un-named chronic pain disorder she's constantly had to keep hidden, not to mention a turbulent childhood of constantly being forced to move as her mother jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend, some of whom thought "mother and daughter were a package deal." She's guarded, afraid of getting hurt, and doesn't believe anyone is willing to stick around. Shane, on the other hand, grew up in the foster care system. He learned from a young age that external pain washes out the pain on the inside, leading him to constantly look for trouble, whether that be fights, broken bones, or drug addictions. Even after becoming clean, Shane is searching for purpose, searching for a way to make his pain go away, even as he fears that's all he can bring upon otherpeople. The two of them are simply stunning characters. Their relationship is messy, but not toxic; complicated, but not destined for failure. If this book was just Eva and Shane, I think I would have liked it a lot more... but it's not. And thus, we reach my laundry list of grievances.

Just to get this one out of the way: head hopping. There were multiple chapters/scenes where we would flash between character perspectives within the same scene, sometimes just for a few sentences, and it was completely disorienting. Usually, when you flip heads, you either wait until the end of the scene and jump in a new setting/scene, or you create a natural pause within the scene to shift over. You need it to feel like there has been a close of some kind before jumping over to someone else, otherwise it feels completely choppy, which is what happened here. But speaking of character perspectives, let's talk about the characters themselves.

Outside of Eva and Shane, literally everyone annoyed me. I understand the quote above, talking about how the whimsical is never interspersed with black literature, and it's a completely valid point. I think, though, the author fixated a bit too much on this aspect, (at least for my taste), and the "whimsical" characters just became hyperbolic characters. Cece and Audre in particular felt like caricatures of certain archetypes, and while I can see the attempted psychology behind it, they just felt like try-hard comic relief characters. Now, don't get me wrong, that isn't an inherently bad thing. Honestly, if it had just been one character like this, I think it would have been fine. Yet, it was literally EVERY character that wasn't Shane or Eva.

When you combine something so extremely comical with something so deed and serious like Evan and Shane's character arcs, all you get is a clash. It felt like Eva and Shane were in one story, and all the other characters were in another. I definitely think it's possible to have comedy in a serious work, and it's certainly possible to have serious moments in a comedic genre, but they need to be pulled closer to the midline. Blend them instead of contrast them if that makes sense. Yet, with all of this said, I still would have given this book 4-4.5 stars. But you know why I couldn't? All the rampant internet slang.

Oh. My. God. The amount of times shade, tea, shook, BTW, fam, OMG, and #whatever, was used in not just description, but internal and external dialogue... I almost slammed my head into a wall. Some people don't mind this at all, but I despise it. It was thrown in far, far too liberally throughout the story, which only made the characters feel even less realistic than they already did because I, for one, have never spoken to someone who talks like this. Maybe because they know it would annoy the crap out of me and consequently only talk to their other friends like that, but oh my god I hated it. Especially since we have flashbacks to 2004, and some of the lingo is still being used, and I'm almost positive no one was saying "shook" in 2004.

Overall, this book is a great idea, has fantastic insight, but a clumsy execution. ...more

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Jan 16, 2023 morgan rated it liked it

i enjoyed the story, however everything hit close to home and sometimes i don't like to read about black trauma - i live it. i'm not sure if i buy into the romance either... even tho shane really did care about eva i just didn't feel it!

i listened to this and went up to 1.75 which made the story go faster after 50 percent, i do think it peaked too soon as well.

had fun and would recommend if you like pop references in books!!!

PLEASE CHECK TRIGGER WARNINGS! ...more

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