I will not be giving feedback on this book. I started it, and was not in the right mindset for reading it. When/if I do pick it up again, I will definitely leave a thoughtful review.

This was a quiet, introspective book that deserves a place on library shelves. Gayle Forman has been a popular YA author for a while, and I hadn't read any of her books until now. It took me a little while to get into the book, but after a while I started understanding Aaron's story more and found a bit of myself in Ira (specifically last school year when because of Covid, there were almost no students in my school's library).

Aaron has a lot on his plate and he feels stuck: his brother died from a drug overdose, his mother has left, his father is a shell of his old self, and he is the owner of a failing used bookstore. Aaron sees the store's, and his own, failure as inevitable and is struggling with whether he should try to stop it or just give in to it. When the struggle comes to a head, Aaron decides to sell the store. And now he's struggling to tell his father about the sale all while new friends try to help Aaron and his father save the store (not knowing that a deal has been struck). Can Aaron accept the help from new friends and deal with his past so that he can move forward?

This is ultimately a story about family, community, grief, and addiction. Forman does a great job of telling this story without being preachy, and lets her characters find their way organically. Recommended.

This is definitely not a sweet happy love story. The whole thing felt sort of moody and sad, even though it was tempered by the humorous bits about these older guys taking on the bookstore as a renovation project. Aaron resists help and friendship and it’s frustrating to see him be that way and to see what has become of his family ever since his brother’s death.
I feel like everything I wrote makes it seem like I didn’t like this story-but that’s not true. Forman is a great writer and I was sincerely interested in Aaron and what would happen to him. I wanted the romance to work out, but more than that I wanted Aaron to find some hope in the world and I wanted that bookstore to succeed.

I loved all of the characters and the originality of the plot. It was fun and fast paced and made you stop to think. I don’t think this will be a book for everyone, but I certainly enjoyed it! Thank you for my free copy for review.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I was really conflicted with this book. I liked some of the parts and really disliked other parts (hence the 3 stars). I was so excited for the whole bookshop plot. As a reader who likes bookshops, I wanted to see where that would take me.That's probably the part I enjoyed the most - even if the shop was sort of a failure in the process of being sold.

I loved the side characters way more than the main character. I loved Ira, Chad was okay and the "builder" guys made me smile.

But Aaron? I had issues with Aaron. Clearly, he had some issues that stemmed from the loss of a brother. But man, sometimes he was just a jerk. He was a jerk to Chad. He was kinda weird to and with Hannah (and this relationship was just boring) and the whole bit where he blamed addicts and they have clear choices and it's their fault they are addicted and should just stop.... nope. That knocked off two stars.

Also, I was a bit baffled by the whole crossing the border thing without a passport and how an entire car of people thought this was no big deal and helped him.

If a lot of it didn't center around the bookshop, I probably would have marked it lower but that kinda saved it.

JUST SO GOOD! I adored this book and shockingly haven't read more from Gayle Forman. I will be changing that immediately!

I really wanted to like this book. I loved If I Stay and Where She Went and the synopsis of We Are Inevitable looked so interesting. I feel like I couldn't connect with the characters at all. I was confused about what was happening, which I get was on purpose, but I felt like some of the reveals were not made to be a big deal even though they seemed built up to be.

I didn't like the romance in it at all. The encounters were so brief and not memorable. I am not a fan of instalove.

The only character I liked was Chad and even then he annoyed me at times. I really wanted to love Aaron and Chad's quirky relationship but just couldn't. Everyone had this quirkiness about them that I would usually love, but it just didn't happen with anyone in this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for my ARC.

3.5 stars
thank you to penguin teen for sending me an arc of this book in exchange for my review!

i love how this book brings in the magic of books and is constantly talking about literature. i found that to be super special. i also loved aaron’s thoughts on “inevitability”. it was super intriguing to see his thoughts on it.

the reason this book doesn’t have the highest rating is because i was just bored at a few parts. there were sections that dragged, but then there were other sections that made up for that.

overall, i would recommend this book! it’s a book-lovers perfect book! the match is inevitable ;)

I binge read several Gayle Forman books years ago and have been a fan ever since. This is the first I’ve read with a male MC and I really enjoyed it. As with any of her books, it is not really a feel good story, however the characters are so endearing. Aaron and his father are still reeling from the death of Aaron’s brother. Ira’s character is so, so sweet. Y’all know I’m a sucker for a YA dad. He’s somewhat clueless and just wants their bookstore to be successful.

The bookstore is in real financial trouble and Aaron considers selling it, only to find that many people would rather try to save it, even if he isn’t keen to be in charge. He gets himself into some serious shenanigans, all the while meeting a girl, and trying to carry on without his family in tact.

The chapters are book titles, which also warmed my Bookstagram heart.

Overall, this is a solid YA read.

I’ve been a hardcore Gayle Forman fan since her debut YA Leave Me. To this day, her follow up If I Stay is one of my favorite YA contemporary stories. Need a good cry, go pick it up. And since Leave Me and If I Stay, Forman has continued to hit our book-nerd hearts with character-driven YA contemporary reads that deliver 10/10 in the FEELS department. Her newest is We Are Inevitable, and I just sighed in contentment because this book is not only one for bookworms and those dealing with loss and grief but, in terms of escapism, delivers the ultimate cozy space.

We Are Inevitable opens with a quote that just about floored my heart. Not literally. I wouldn’t be around to type this if that had been the case. Though it provides quite the image. *shudders* But back to that quote.

“They say it took the dinosaurs thirty-three thousand years to die. […] How far into that thirty-three-thousand-year stretch did they go before they understood that their extinction was not looming—it had already happened.”

Aaron is a teenage bookstore owner (more on that later) who no longer reads. Well, except for that one book on dinosaurs (The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs). In the wake of his older brother’s death and his mother’s abandonment of the family, he’s lost his love for fictional worlds and his parents’ used bookstore. Not that the used book business is pumping, which is why Aaron now owns the store. It was all a transaction of filing for bankruptcy yet keeping the store in the family. Not that his dad, with his scattered mind and books scattered everywhere, is still a master at the hand-sell. Struck by the same tragic events, his dad has become fragile. The store has fallen into the same disrepair as their family. Extinction for Bluebird Books, as Aaron sees it, is not looming—it has already happened. He’s not a glass-half-full kind of kid, that one. When Aaron discovers a box of credit cards his dad’s been using to keep the sinking store afloat, he finally caves to a real-estate vulture and sells the property… without telling his dad. (Something Aaron will struggle to do throughout the length of the novel.)

Because turns out that just when Aaron believes all hope to be lost, hope is just around the corner. It arrives in former skateboarder Chad, who’s now a wheelchair user after an accident left him with irreversible spine damage. A trio of lumberjacks, who are suddenly and inexplicably eager to give the store the overhaul it so desperately needs. And Hannah — the maybe love interest, but definitely lead singer of Beethoven’s Anvil. Not that Aaron likes music. Actually, he prides himself on his dislike. His brother (in life, owner of a prized vinyl collection) was the music buff. But it’s Hannah who proves that music is simply another form of storytelling. And it’s Hannah who brings Aaron face to face with the prejudices he still harbors against his older brother.

At its core, We Are Inevitable is a story about a boy who lost his brother, and in the process, his sense of his own place in the world. And even though Aaron has lost his love for books, this book is a love letter to books (chapter headings are book titles, and there’s a bibliography at the back). Themes of grief, loss, family bonds, substance abuse & addiction, and mental health are well explored. This one will hit all the stops on the Feels Train. Forman has a marvelous knack for tapping into her characters’ inner lives and bringing their vulnerabilities to the page. Above all, We Are Inevitable is a story of hope that will stay with you long after the final page.

What’s more to love: disability representation, mental health representation, will probably make you cry, thought-provoking.

I love all of Gayle Forman’s books and this one is no exception! I devoured it in less than 24 hours and just couldn’t put it down. I loved it and will recommend it to every young adult genre lover!

When deciding on whether or not I want to read a book, I usually look at the author and the cover. Most times if I haven’t read the author before, I will read a couple sentences of the synopsis to see what its about. And if I have read them, I will more than likely just add it to my TBR without reading the synopsis at all. I learned just how faulty this system was with this book.

Aaron Stein thinks there’s always something bad coming; that it’s inevitable. And so far, of course it hasn’t worked out well for him or his family. He’s had to stay behind while his friends went off to college, his father is hanging on to a bookstore that’s going to fail, and his mom is gone. He’s now holding out hope for the good kind of inevitable. And then he meets Hannah. Wonderful Hannah who could possibly be the answer to everything. Is she what Aaron has been waiting on this entire time?

Normally I hate when books have synopses that say too much about the book and I end up knowing all the events in the book without having to read it. But this time, I hate that they didn’t put enough in the synopsis. You see, substance abuse is a huge trigger for me. When I was in middle school, I had two family members who did it. All of that was a super dark time and I couldn’t tell you how that traumatized me as a pre-teen. This book has substance abuse in it, with no mention of it in the synopsis. Coming across it while I was listening was pretty jarring. Why is it that was left off? Or at the very least, if not in the synopsis, there should have been a TW/CW page in the beginning. I’m an adult that had trouble with this, so I can only imagine if there is a teen who found substance abuse as a trigger, that got this into their hands. It just kind of scared me.

All of that to say, the story was ok and the plot was just fine, but still, I don’t think I can rate this. Although I was invested in the story, there were a bunch of times where I fast forwarded through it to miss the information about the substance abuse. I have no idea if I went too far and missed things or what. The plot was ok from what I did hear tho. As a fan of Gayle Foreman’s other books, I can’t imagine there were any major things wrong.

As for the ending, I did like that. (From what I remember.) I was glad to see the growth that Aaron went through. It was a hard time getting there, because grief is no easy thing, but Aaron finally got the help he needed. And the cameo was EVERYTHING. It was a surprise and it was so good! I was so excited to see them, I remember reaching out to Twitter to make sure it was them lol IYKYK!

I had some issues with this one, but because I missed some patches, but read it for the most part, I don’t feel right rating this. Normally I would rate it low because of the substance abuse, but what I did read I liked. And I also don’t feel right marking it as a DNF because I read most of it and it’s also a review book. So, I’m leaving the review and leaving the no rating. I’ll let you decide on whether or not you want to read it yourself.

I liked the plot of this book, but considering that it's told in a first person narrative, I found it a little superficial. The main character, Aaron, feels stuck - stuck in grief, stuck in his life path, stuck in his small town. He and his father run a bookstore which is a dying industry. Although it's never spelled out, it's clear he has depression, from his quiet rage to his inability to move forward in any meaningful way. The phrase "We are Inevitable" hearkens back to his parent's relationship - both of them knew instantaneously that each other was the one. Aaron feels this is hyperbole until it happens to him when he first sees Hannah. However, while the book might be marketed that way, it's really more than a romance novel. I don't want to spoil, but Aaron is struggling with grief from death and abandonment, both physically and mentally. However, at his lowest, the neighborhood unexpectedly rallies around him. Aaron fights this support in every way her can, but it's not really clear why all of them continue to support him and ask him for support as well. Some of the acts of kindness are explained, but not all of them add up. I think the novel could have been stronger if there had been a little more pushback from the people he's kind of rude and nasty towards. However, having said all that, Forman's fans will probably enjoy this novel, despite it's easy fixes to large problems. I was given an electronic advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC of We Are Inevitable by Gayle Forman.
We Are Inevitable is the best YA book I've read this year. Gayle Forman did a superb job bringing the characters to life and providing all the feels. To me, this book is a YA version of A Man Called Ove or Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. Quirky, lovable characters trying to find their way in the world. Characters that you want to see come out on top!

Quick Stats
Age Rating: 15+
Overall: 4 stars
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Setting: 4/5
Writing: 4/5

TW: addiction, overdose, grief, sibling loss, divorce, trauma, frank discussions of drug and alcohol abuse, discussions of disability and the accident that caused it.

I’m going to start off by saying: This is not a comedy. Gayle Forman starts the book with a forward where she calls the book a comedy, and just… no??? It’s good! But it’s not a comedy. Don’t go into this book expecting a comedy. It’s well written, hard hitting, and kind of brutal. It will break your heart, not make you laugh.
Now that we’ve got that out of the way—this book had disability rep! I didn’t know that going into it, so when we met Chad (unfortunate name choice, awesome dude) who’s wheelchair bound and partially paralyzed from a SCI, I was shocked in the best way. I am neither a wheelchair user, nor paralyzed, so I can’t speak for the accuracy of that rep specifically, but I was really impressed with the general discussions arund being disabled. I think those were done very well. There was also discussion of sex and sexuality of disabled people, which is often overlooked and an important thing to talk about.
I think Jax was also disabled, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I was confused as to whether or not they were wheelchair bound and suffered from paresis as well, or if they were just a love interest for Chad, or what.
The book was really enjoyable. It gave me very John Green vibes, so if you’re a fan of his, definitely check this one out.

We Are Inevitable is an emotional contemporary that follows Aaron Stein, a recent high school graduate who feels as though he has been left behind--he is still living in his small Pacific Northwest town while all of his friends have gone away to college and he is working at his family's struggling bookstore at his stepdad's insistence. Forman herself has said that this book is more lighthearted than her previous works, but it still tackles some heavy topics such as depression and addiction. I admittedly hadn't read a Forman novel before We Are Inevitable, but I do have If I Stay on my shelf and now I'm a bit scared of how emotional and heavy that's going to be.

In We Are Inevitable, Aaron struggles a lot with the idea of fate and that everything happens for a reason, and while I personally believe that everything happens for a reason (even if we don't know what that reason is), I understood where he was coming from. His life seems to be a series of inevitable bad events, until he becomes entangled with Chad, an older guy trying to better himself after realizing how much of a prick he was when he was younger, who introduces him to Hannah.

Like Aaron, Hannah is also dealing with her own baggage: she appears to be a semi-successful up and coming musician, but she is also a recovering narcotics addict. Addiction is a hard topic to tackle no matter how you spin it, but I think Forman handles it well. Aaron and Hannah understand each other, which makes their tentative romance work.

Overall, this was a great read even if I'm honestly unsure how one could describe it as lighthearted.

We Are Inevitable by Gayle Forman is a great read about a young guy, Aaron Stein, who is trying to keep his family’s used bookstore afloat while dealing with the loss of his brother, his mother moving away, and his father’s mental health issues. Just when he thinks he’s out of options a new friend, a girl in a band, and a hodgepodge group of guys make him reconsider his views on addiction, kindness of strangers, and his belief that all is lost.

I thought this book was a really great depiction of grief, how everyone processes it differently and at their own pace, and that if you are willing to open yourself up to it there is always more joy to be found in the world - it just might not look the way it used to anymore.

Thanks to @penguinteen and @netgalley for the #gifted e-arc in exchange for honest review!

Okay, so this book meets all the YA "requirements", a disabled character, a gay character, an addicted character, a semi-depressed character, and I'm sure that somewhere there was a minority character. But somehow Gayle Forman has taken all these characters, put them in a blender, stirred them up and come up with a really interesting book that along the way gives the reader a long list of books that everyone should know--and if you don't she provides the list at the end. I am a soft-touch for any books about libraries and bookstores, so this is why I chose to read this one. Ms. Forman has a lot of experience in writing for young adults and it certainly shows in this one, with her treatment of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. AND in the end which I thought was going to be soooooo depressing, she turned it into an uplifting solution that only someone who can think "outside the box" would devise.

4.5/5

Oh, my GOODNESS, We Are Inevitable by Gayle Forman is one of the best YA novels I have read in a while. I don't know who wouldn't be excited about a book that focuses on a bookstore, and I could definitely relate to the small-town feel as well. I found Aaron to be such an endearing character, and I think the best way to enjoy this book is to listen to the audio. The narrator is Sunil Malhotra and I really can't get over how great of a job he did. He was so fun to listen to and listening to this book was like listening to someone tell a story. He was very animated, and I loved all his different voices for different characters. I honestly think his narration made me love the book even more, and I am SO GLAD I listened to the audiobook. I also loved the entire cast of characters, every one of them is unique and quirky, and almost all of them are dealing with something. I was in tears before the first half of the book was even over, and although I couldn't relate to what they were going through, Forman still gave me all the feels.

I also adored the fact that each chapter started with a book title which would come up during that chapter. I love when authors do little fun things like this, and it was such a great and unique idea. I have had Forman's newer books on my list for quite a while now and I am so glad I finally got to one. I loved everything about her writing, from the conversational style to the way it flowed so perfectly. I read I Was Here previously, and while I enjoyed that one, I LOVED this one. The book I finished before this one was a really dark and heavy thriller, and while We Are Inevitable does deal with tough topics, it still has that lovely lighter feel that makes it a good palate cleanser. It made me laugh so many times and I loved the mix of humor and seriousness. It created the perfect blend for me, and I just did not want to put the book down. I am already looking forward to reading my next book by Forman!

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Thank you to the publisher for an e-ARC of this book.

i had high hopes for this book, but it moved slowly, and I struggled to get into it. Unfortunately, this one didn't get off the ground for me.