We Are Inevitable

Starred review from May 3, 2021
Embittered in the wake of his older brother’s overdose and death as well as his mother’s abandonment, 19-year-old Aaron Stein, who is white and Jewish, feels like one of the doomed dinosaurs he obsessively reads about. He’s been forced to run his family’s failing Bellingham, Wash., bookstore since his parents filed for bankruptcy and transferred ownership, a business that seems slated for extinction. Concerned about his dad’s intensifying mental confusion and agitation, and angry at his late brother for the financial fallout surrounding his drug reliance, Aaron makes a secret property deal. But the meddling of 21-year-old “Best-Life Bro” Chad Santos, a former classmate who uses a wheelchair, challenges Aaron’s pessimism. Forman (If I Stay) movingly communicates Aaron’s grief through his hostility and flawed understanding of addiction; his burgeoning relationship with brown-eyed, freckled musician Hannah, who’s newly sober, and his growing self-awareness bring nuance to this discussion and depiction of addiction. Both a moving story of growing through grief and an ode to the miracle of books and independent bookstores, Forman’s newest is a sincere and affecting volume. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.

May 1, 2021
Nineteen-year-old Aaron Stein lives with his father, Ira, and works in their used bookstore. When a shelf suddenly collapses, it triggers a domino effect: They can't afford a replacement, and Aaron discovers they're in dire financial straits and that his father's been relying on credit cards to cover expenses. Aaron has been struggling since his older brother's overdose death and his mother's subsequent departure. His brother's years of addiction and final hospitalization wiped the family out; transferring the bookstore's ownership to Aaron was supposed to offer a clean slate. Aaron can't bring himself to tell his father that he's sold the shop to a local business owner. Then party bro Chad, an old friend of his brother's who uses a wheelchair, shows up in their small town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state and insists on helping build an accessibility ramp for the store. Soon more townspeople appear, eager to help renovate. Aaron tries to renege on the sale, but the buyer demands $13,000, delivered in two weeks. While he's running out of time, he's drawn to a charismatic girl, the perfect distraction. As the community brings the store back to life, Aaron flees until he realizes he can't hide any longer. Aaron's reckoning with grief is slow-burning and real, and the cycle of addiction is rendered with care and precision. Most characters are assumed White. A love letter to bookstores and a deftly drawn portrait of the ripples of addiction. (Fiction. 14-18)

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June 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-After his brother dies from an overdose, Aaron is alone and adrift. His friends have all graduated, his mom has left town, and the family bookstore is literally falling to pieces around him. It seems inevitable for him to sell the store, but once it's sold, an old friend of his brother's named Chad suddenly convinces Aaron to make it wheelchair accessible, and a local crew of unemployed lumberjacks decides to assist in the renovations. Aaron doesn't have the heart to tell them about the sale before everything spirals out of control. Aaron is a thoroughly unreliable narrator and a reluctant friend. Grief and loss have made him close himself off from the world, but it's impossible for him to hide away from all the people who want to help. When the sale of the bookstore is revealed, he's forced to confront his own secrecy and deception, which helps him begin to understand his brother's addiction. The story is full of love and admiration for small businesses and small bookstores in particular. The themes of addiction and loss will resonate with some readers, and many will find the message of hope through pain and loss meaningful. Many of the main characters attend support groups, which are presented as valid and useful avenues for personal growth and accountability. Chad uses a wheelchair and Jax uses they/them pronouns. Aaron and his family are Jewish and coded as white. Their town is predominantly white with few Black residents. VERDICT This is an additional purchase to hand to fans of heartfelt drama.-Laken Hottle, Providence Community Lib.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2021
Grades 10-12 Forman (I Have Lost My Way, 2018) ventures into new territory with a contemporary coming-of-age novel that bridges the gap between young adult and new adult. Nineteen-year-old bookshop co-owner Aaron is tired of life pushing him around and he's determined to take the reins. So he's making a deal to sell his family's bookshop--only he has yet to tell his father. Meanwhile, he must deal with the guys who keep coming to spruce the place up and his new friend who has a new lease on life, thanks, in part, to the bookstore. Thoughtful and resonant, this is a book lover's dream, packed with literary references and laced with literary devices that Forman introduces as effortlessly as magic tricks. Despite Aaron's well-defined cynicism and sardonic nature, he's a narrator whom it's impossible not to root for. With themes of self-honesty and grief, this is the perfect read for fans of John Green.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2021
Since "the asteroid hit" -- Aaron's term for when his brother died of an opioid overdose -- the only book Aaron can bring himself to read is one about the extinction of the dinosaurs. He's sure the catastrophes that have befallen him are as inevitable as that asteroid strike had been for the dinosaurs: the breakup of his parents' marriage, the decline of his family's bookstore in rural Washington State, his own stagnation. But as Aaron, who took ownership of the store on his eighteenth birthday, gets ready to sell the building, he finds new friends (notably Chad, a classic "bro" type who's newly a wheelchair user after a snowboarding accident) and unexpected help (as a group of unemployed lumberjacks starts repairing the store despite his protestations). Aaron is an observer, deeply cynical and highly literate, regularly making assessments of friends and family (his father is "the human incarnation of The Giving Tree"). His close narration leaves readers nearly as in the dark as the protagonist about the angles he's missing (the options available to him, and others' efforts and willingness to help him), which allows for a surprising emotional payoff. Forman (I Was Here, rev. 1/15; I Have Lost My Way, rev. 5/18) excels at pacing, and the rich cast of well-defined secondary characters lends plenty of depth. Sarah Rettger

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2021
Since "the asteroid hit" -- Aaron's term for when his brother died of an opioid overdose -- the only book Aaron can bring himself to read is one about the extinction of the dinosaurs. He's sure the catastrophes that have befallen him are as inevitable as that asteroid strike had been for the dinosaurs: the breakup of his parents' marriage, the decline of his family's bookstore in rural Washington State, his own stagnation. But as Aaron, who took ownership of the store on his eighteenth birthday, gets ready to sell the building, he finds new friends (notably Chad, a classic "bro" type who's newly a wheelchair user after a snowboarding accident) and unexpected help (as a group of unemployed lumberjacks starts repairing the store despite his protestations). Aaron is an observer, deeply cynical and highly literate, regularly making assessments of friends and family (his father is "the human incarnation of The Giving Tree"). His close narration leaves readers nearly as in the dark as the protagonist about the angles he's missing (the options available to him, and others' efforts and willingness to help him), which allows for a surprising emotional payoff. Forman (I Was Here, rev. 1/15; I Have Lost My Way, rev. 5/18) excels at pacing, and the rich cast of well-defined secondary characters lends plenty of depth.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)