I have conflicting feelings about this book. I really enjoyed reading it. The character work was excellent. This was especially clear reading Om and his clients. I could read a whole other book just of Om’s sessions. He’s annoying and mildly sexist and definitely culturally appropriative but also sometimes gives good advice? He’s just such an entertaining character. I also ended up listening to the audiobook alongside the text and that was great. All the narrators did a great job but again, Om specifically, yup, that’s the voice. The book was also just really funny. I laughed out loud multiple times.

With that said, I also definitely understand the complaints about it. It is very white. There aren’t any characters of color, which, aside from the fact that books should be diverse regardless, if you’re writing a subtly racist character, that should be juxtaposed. Especially from what I’ve heard about her response to being called out, Jen Beagin just doesn’t seem to care, which is really disappointing. I think she has a lot of potential as an author, but if she refuses to take accountability or be critiqued, her work will continue to suffer. For this reason, even with how much I enjoyed reading it, I’m not sure what to rate it and I don’t feel comfortable recommending it to others.