Eli and Elizabeth are a young married couple, writers living in Bulgaria, where the brilliant Elizabeth has a fellowship and Eli spends his days waiting for her to come, pondering why he feels inferior to just about everyone, but especially his wife. As much as he suffers from self loathing, and comes from a dysfunctional family, with trauma in his background, Elizabeth and her family have a superiority complex. When something happens to upend their lives, everything they each thought about themselves is blown open. People Collide is mainly an exploration of relationships with self and others, gender, trauma, our similarities and differences, and the parts people hide from the world versus what they show or how they show up in the world. How we see ourselves versus how we are seen by others. Can we ever really know ourselves, or another person? These are heady questions, and People Collide kept me fascinated while trying to explore those questions. The only reason I didn't give it a five--there are small spots that felt maybe forced or strained, or untrue, where the author was trying to create two separate souls but they feel like the same soul. Still--I would highly recommend this book. It's deep and it's a rollercoaster of a read.

This was one of those books that draw you in from the first sentence. A welcome and most awesome quality for any novel, and most auspicious for a debut. It’s take on gender swapping was unique and fresh and just fun.
I mean, this wasn’t mere Orlando for our time, this was different in every way. With potential to say so much about gender politics, relationship dynamics, etc. And it did…to an extent. For about 55% or so. And then it sort of meandered.
Not a terrible thing because the writing is strong enough to engage even with meandering, but somewhat disappointing, mainly because the novel is good enough to verge on great.
It goes like this, boy and girl meet, fall in love, get hastily married so that boy can accompany girl to the Balkans of all places, and then one day boy wakes up in the girl’s body and girl is nowhere to be found.
Okay, girl and boy are not exactly accurate, these are two twenty-eight years olds, a vastly different two – different upbringings, different success levels, different drives, but still…They were kinda sorta making the differences work or plainly ignoring them until they couldn’t. Because apparently gender reversal throws a pretty significant wrench in the works.
It seems like the book should have said more, like it was poised to say more, but then just as it was getting into the meat of it all, it decided to take an easy way out. Maybe it’s because I was so immersed in the narrative that I wanted more.
Yes, it shifted perspectives and presented different views but never quite to the same level as part one with Eli as the narrator.
The ending felt kind of…resigned when compared to the story’s potential and most of its narrative. Like, is this it? Is that all? Definitely leaves you wanting more.
But then again, in a way that’s a compliment to the book. An overall good and interesting book that has a lot to say, even though it manages to say only some of it. People come together and stay together for different reasons, and it’s oftentimes an event random enough to pass for a collision. Dangerous or damaging as it may be, such collisions alter both parties. But then make for a good story. Featuring one of the best written, most plot relevant sex scenes I’ve ever read. That’s neither here nor there, but worth a mention.
Overall, a good thought-provoking, engaging read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.