Admittedly I read this to feed my Ethan Hawke obsession, as someone who loves his movies I was interested to see what his writing was like. I found his writing to be surprisingly good for an actor. I was hoping this book would be like the Before trilogy that he starred in and although I could definitely see some similarities this had a darker, less hopeful tone to it.

We follow William who falls in love with Sarah and we begin to see how all consuming first love can be and all the complicated feelings that come with it. I found William to be a hopeless romantic but also deeply narcissistic, I’m not sure if he was meant to be that way but that’s how I viewed him throughout most of the book. The relationship between the two characters wasn’t healthy despite how much William romanticised Sarah which made it feel like a true, relatable romance story.

I am looking forward to reading more by Ethan Hawke!

This isn't a love story, it's barely even a story. You'd think that something would happen in a 200 page book but nothing happens. Might enjoy if I were a 17 year old boy lusting for a girl who wasn't interested in me.

When I heard that Ethan Hawke had written a book, I just HAD to have it! Loved it!

Jesus Christ man get it together

First romance book I read from the male perspective. It took my breath away.

I wouldn't have imagined this book to revive me out of my almost two year reading slump, but surprisingly it did, effortlessly. I finished it in a night.

Ethan Hawke is masterful at portraying silly characters with sillier problems, spinning it eloquently, and maybe even striking a few relativity chords on the readers. Out of all his books, it is evident in this one.

I haven't read flaming romance, short and fierce, emit brightly, and plummet into quotes like "my entire string of relationships have felt like waking up at midnight craving for a glass of milk to quench my thirst, only to rush up to the fridge and drink spoilt milk out of the carton, go back to sleep and start overthinking that maybe the milk wasn't that bad and it was actually good, and head back to the fridge to drink the spoilt one again."

Masterpiece.

Romantic, conversational, believable, evocative.

Perfect summer read. Oh, young love, it can be so crazy. I love Ethan Hawke's writing style, detailed, descriptive, hypnotic. He's one of my favorite actors too, so this was a delightful surprise.

a lot of the critical reception for this are along the lines of: “to think a handsome hollywood heartthrob wrote this” … this is exactly the kind of lived-in character study that can only be written by 90s ethan hawke.

william’s done dating “obviously beautiful” women because he’s moved to new york and wants to rally against convention. he makes a long standing point that sarah looks “off”. she’ll do.

but the romantic gestures don’t land with sarah. he’s too impressed by himself and wonders why she isn’t.

hawke shows that the sunnier side of the romantic outlook has its shadows. you can have your ex girlfriend crying to you about the abortion she had to have because of you but maybe don’t drown her out by thinking of how stunningly globular and clear her tears are.

Bless his heart; he tried.

Toxic. Just complete and utter misogynistic horseshit.

I also became obsessed with Ethan Hawke this year and I had it so bad for him that I even read his debut novel.

I read this back in 1996 when it was released. Before it was a movie....
This book has stayed in my thoughts a long while.
Quality writing in my opinion.