I Hate Everyone But You

by Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin

[Leah]

I Hate Everyone But You is, apparently, the debut novel from two YouTubers, Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin. I actually have no idea who they are, my YouTube watching is limited to Philip DeFranco (he’s awesome), booktubers, CinemaSins (HILARIOUS), Zoella (because I want to be her) and How To Dad (even MORE hilarious). Apparently they are comediennes (comedians? I HAVE NO IDEA) and have their own show. I just thought this sounded like a great book, and I love, love, love epistolary novels!

There is a lot to unpack with this book! It’s similar, to me, to Gena/Finn which I freaking loved (and still prefer, shhh) and it’s told solely in text messages (or tweets IDK) and emails. Ava and Gen live on opposite coasts after Gen decided to go to Boston for college and Ava stayed in California and they communicate daily about their lives/relationships/dramas, everything basically.

For such a short novel, boy does a lot happen, though and I kinda feel it shoe-horned everything into this book. Gen’s sexuality (which she is SO defensive of, and I’ll get to that), Ava’s mental health issues (we’re told she’s been in therapy for YEARS but we don’t actually know what it was that set her on that path, it could have delved so deep into Ava’s mental health but instead it was just a few sessions with a counsellor and maybe new drugs almost as if it was just a side thing, something non-important and despite the fact Ava had maybe five panic attacks as she re-told her stories, they all ended up fine? But I don’t know how realistic that is because maybe that’s how it goes for some people? But this book gave no context, no reasoning, no anything. It was just like… Well, there’s a panic attack.), the language was so 2017 that this book will date so quickly. Bae, lit (which is appropriation, I think), tot, all that slang people have decided is appropriate to use instead of actual words. I don’t mind pop culture in books but you kinda have to pick your battles. Bae is not a word that anyone should use, ever again, ever. For so many issues, this needed to be more than just emails/texts.

Now let’s talk about Gen. I loved her, I loved how honest she was, how stubborn and I liked that being in Boston allowed her to explore her sexuality. However, she was kind of a jerk to Ava about it, and I kinda didn’t get why. It may be because I am white and cis, but if I had a friend like Gen, who liked girls and boys, who was queer, I would be curious. I would want to ask questions, especially if it was my best friend in the whole world who I felt wouldn’t mind, but Gen minded. A lot. Which is her prerogative and maybe Ava should have Googled it? But they kinda had that kind of friendship where it should have been okay for Ava to ask the things she asked? Google can give you fifty different answers from fifty different people with fifty vastly different opinions, so why wouldn’t you turn to your best friend? IDK maybe that’s wrong of me to think that. Gen was happy to tell Ava what to do in her relationships, but Ava couldn’t do that back? *Shrugs*

And this might make me sound so freaking old, but damn does Gen sleep with a lot of people. I have no issues with the people, I just DO PEOPLE DO THAT AT 18? Just sleep with whoever they want, whenever they want, like a buffet? It seriously skeeved me out. Sure, she was exploring her sexuality but damn, four people in what seems like the space of a week? I’m not even the type who thinks you should only sleep with the person you marry (I swear) I suppose I just like one person at a time kinda thing and not the whole one-night-stand thing Gen went for. Good for her, but man, I could so see her ending up on Jerry Springer!

I loved Ava. Yes, she was a bit stuck up and wasn’t always tactful, but I could see myself in her. I would ask all those questions, whether it was right or wrong, because I learn better when someone tells me of their experiences than Googling it and getting the wrong answers. Their friendship was so incredible but it also kinda seemed a lot one sided, sometimes, with Ava more into it than Gen.

I just felt like this book wanted to be EVERYTHING. It’s 288 pages long and bear in mind a lot of that is text messages, so it’s not like there’s tons of words in it, and yet it dealt with E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. The LGBTQ rep was fantastic, but I felt let down by Ava’s mental health rep. Again, I’m no expert; I learn by reading books and Googling and reading stuff on social media, but I felt let down. Like it was there, sure, but it wasn’t the main focus and no focus was really on it, there’s self-harm and it’s just brushed over, like “Don’t do it again, or else” and I mean that’s kinda harmful, right?! Ava says it's a coping mechanism but I mean that doesn’t make self-harm right? But I don’t know! I wish I knew more, I wish I could say whether people should read this book or steer clear (I feel like the whole self-harm thing should mean anyone triggered by that steers clear because it seems wrong?) but I just do not have enough knowledge.

I wanted to love I Hate Everyone But You, but it just tried to do too much. You don’t need to shoe-horn every single plot ever written, ever, into one book. Especially not when that book is in epistolary form. It took me so freaking long to sort Ava’s voice from Gen’s because their text messages aren’t named, they just have stupid emojis (BIG mistake). I just… I don’t even know if this review will go live anywhere, because I don’t know if it’s okay what I’ve said. I don’t know I won’t be jumped on for not agreeing with Gen’s lifestyle (I couldn’t care less who she sleeps with gender-wise, I just care that it’s tons of different people) and I just… I don’t know. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I did and I had a ton of issues.