Sadly this book did not bring me even a sliver of happiness. And it was one of my most anticipated 2019 releases!

rtc on my blog closer to publication date

SPOILERS THIS REVIEW CONTAINS THEM A BIG ONE ACTUALLY BIG SPOILER


We Contain Multitudes was a gorgeous book. Reminiscent of Aristotle and Dante and I'll Give You the Sun in terms of heartrenching beauty. We follow Adam "Kurl" Kurlansky and Jonathan 'Jo' Hopkirk as they're partnered together in an English class pen pal writing assignment. The book is told through the letters the two exchange, each one dated so it's easy to follow along to what's happening and when. I greatly enjoyed this book. I loved both Kurl and Jo and the fact that they had very distinctive personalities and I loved them equally as characters. However this is getting one less star because of the fact in the midst of a kind of break up with Jo, Kurl winds up having sex with Jo's sister who NEVER BRINGS IT UP OR APOLOGIZES I kind of didn't like her.

Jonathan and Adam are an unlikely pair assigned to write to each other by their shared English teacher. Jo and Adam "Kurl" start off as barely tolerant of each other, forced to communicate for their school assignment. They are different from each other in every possible way including age, social status, interests and family life. Over the course of writing each other they become first friends and eventually lovers. This is a lovely and compelling LGBTQ love story, however telling the entire story through letters that these two teenage boys are writing to each other felt very forced at times and it was hard to overlook the awkwardness.