We Are Inevitable
Page turning
Artistic
Emotional

We Are Inevitable

Gayle Forman2021
After losing his brother, mom, and most of his friends, Aaron Stein is left with his shambolic father alone in their moldering secondhand bookstore, but just when he considers selling the store he meets new people and takes on new challenges, helping him come to terms with what he has lost and who he wants to be.
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Reviews

Photo of Sarah Campbell
Sarah Campbell@wiltedsarah
3 stars
Feb 17, 2025

This was cute, but nothing extraordinary. It wasn't until the very end that I got much of anything from it. I actually thought most characters felt cartoonish for a while. I did love the little cameo at the end. As someone who has lost a sibling, once it got near the end I was very connected to the story and was interested and touched with what happened.

Photo of Charmaine
Charmaine@faerieofstars
3 stars
Mar 9, 2022

Some things are just inevitable. People, circumstances, and life itself.

Photo of Gabriela Ferreira
Gabriela Ferreira @gabrielaferreira
2 stars
Feb 26, 2022

It was okay... I thought it was going to be better. The storie is more about Aarons life than aarons and hannahs love storie.

Photo of Julia Romans
Julia Romans@julialromans
5 stars
Dec 3, 2021

Absolutely loved this book. It surprised me a lot in how emotionally connected I felt with the characters. It had a lot of book references too, so it was such a fun read. Definitely one of the best YA reads of 2021 for me!

+4
Photo of Aparna Eeshwar
Aparna Eeshwar@sentranced
5 stars
Nov 27, 2021

“Twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks and you have infinite words in infinite worlds.” Our narrator Aron is a nineteen-year-old boy, who owns the Bluebird bookstores along with his father Ira. He’s trying with everything in him to keep his family from sinking into debt. While constantly thinking about the inevitability of what the future holds for him and his family. He goes to an Outhouse one night, where he meets his former bully Chad in a wheelchair. Aron, who’s strictly a book person, later meets Hannah, a band member of Beethoven’s Anvil and she convinces him that one can be a book person and music person, that both can co-exist and show him both are a means of storytelling. And everything changes from there. Does he save his family? Or is their doom inevitable? I’m not telling you. I’m here to compel you into finding it out by reading this amazingly beautiful book. So here’s my pitch to you. This book is said to be a love letter to books and bookstores. But what I felt is, it’s also a reminder to booklovers why we fell in love with books in the first place. It’ll take you back to the moment you realized, “That’s it. This is my life now. I’m going to read book after book, gobble down words like that’s the only thing that can keep me alive.” remember the first book that made you feel that? The first sentence that got you like, “OMG What just happened to me!”. This book will constantly remind you of that feeling. Of what words can do to you, how they can break you and mend you at the same time. What would you say if I tell you, reading this one book will give you 20 other recommendations? Gayle Forman gracefully wove titles of many great books into each chapter in this book and named the chapters after these books. It’s just marvelous. If that doesn’t hype you up, I don’t know what will. This story revolves around literature references, music, family, friends, love, grief and, addiction. About how there is proof for dinosaurs’ existence, but how we will never know how they felt when the inevitable happened. And about how inevitable doesn’t always have to be a bad inevitability. This is a 5/5 because it’s not just a love letter to bookstores and books but also a reminder of how twenty-six letters and some punctuation marks can create miracles.

Photo of Rebecca Briesemeister
Rebecca Briesemeister@becbec624
5 stars
Oct 16, 2021

This book was fantastic in making me feel a range of emotions. It had suspenseful moments that made me wonder what the outcome would be, emotional moments that made me stop in my tracks to take note of just how sad I was and a romance that I was totally rooting for. The father-son relationship portrayed in this book is rocky but realistic and shows the impacts that regret and relief can have. This book shows how important acceptance and closure is. I found the writing to be easy to follow and understand and very effective for the target audience. I found the plot to be really engaging with the right amount of events and twists and turns. This story didn't drag on for me at all. I loved the range of characters as well as the messages they all have. Overall, I thought this book was a great read. It deals with heavy topics like death of a family member as well as other family issues, grief and accepting things that we as individual human beings do not have any control over. This book made me stop in my tracks and think about how much I worry about things that I really cannot control and I think that is a really powerful thing. ** I received a free copy of this book from Bookishfirst and Viking Press in exchange for an honest review**

Photo of Maggie Baumann
Maggie Baumann @maggieslibrary
2.5 stars
Jan 29, 2023
+4
Photo of Michelle Noveak
Michelle Noveak@michellenoveak
3 stars
Oct 18, 2022
Photo of Skye
Skye@skye_05
3 stars
Aug 31, 2022
Photo of Tegan Bell
Tegan Bell@teganbell
4 stars
Aug 27, 2022
Photo of Varshh
Varshh@thefriendlyreader
5 stars
Aug 18, 2022
Photo of Abby Kennedy
Abby Kennedy@ak34
3 stars
Aug 12, 2022
Photo of Shan
Shan@bookishshan
4 stars
Aug 12, 2022
Photo of Danika
Danika@dani_bookworm
3 stars
Mar 16, 2022
Photo of Maria
Maria @sorceryoffbookss
3 stars
Feb 27, 2022
Photo of tutti
tutti@tuttireads
1 star
Feb 16, 2022
Photo of Noémie Carniel
Noémie Carniel@nax
2 stars
Dec 28, 2021
Photo of jordan Ariel johnson
jordan Ariel johnson@deafreader18
4 stars
Dec 14, 2021
Photo of Rebecca
Rebecca@bookmates
3 stars
Dec 2, 2021
Photo of Jasper
Jasper@jaecc
2 stars
Nov 3, 2021
Photo of Courtney Patterson
Courtney Patterson@courtpatterson
3 stars
Sep 30, 2021
Photo of Jessica
Jessica @jessicabeckett
4 stars
Aug 25, 2021