Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus

I tried so many times to love this book, because the concept of this sounded so up my street, but I ended up DNFing at about 50% of the way through. I know that so many people absolutely adore this book, and so I felt so bad about not getting into it or liking it, but this year one of my book resolutions is to stop reading if I’m not enjoying!

However, I think you should still give this book a go because I have seen so many people love it - this is just one person’s opinion and I’m not trying to put you off reading this book!

Just in case you are interested, here are my reasons why I stopped reading:

✨ I went into this thinking it was going to be really funny, but to me it just wasn’t at all.

✨So many of the characters were just awful, unreasonable and cruel, and it felt like there were very few morally grey people.

✨I really struggled with the portrayal of the dog, I usually love dogs in books but this one was too anthropomorphised for me - it had a human consciousness and understood so many complex things. Dogs are super intelligent and loving beings, but in their own, non-human way.

✨I thought that some scenes were pretty brutal and graphic but then the book sort of continued in a light tone and it just left me feeling like it wasn’t dealt with completely.

✨It felt a bit to me like a load of scientific words were thrown in there for good measure and used in a very unnatural way

✨Some of it felt a bit unrealistic like some of the characters are way too genius for their species or age, and there was that bit when she is able to compete in rowing for a university team just because she understands physics?

I love the message of the book, I know it’s a very inspiring overall story so I wish I had been able to enjoy it.

Lessons in Chemistry aesthetic - all photos from Unsplash