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A review by lilyrooke
Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
2.0
are you looking for an opportunity to learn how it feels to live as a chronically anxious young man who enters a baking contest?
read this if you enjoyed: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
rep: gay MC with extreme anxiety, later diagnosed as Generalised Anxiety Disorder; gay British-Bangladeshi Muslim LI; some queer supporting cast.
cw: extreme, constant anxiety; absent, abusive parents; Islamophobia; references to hate crimes; references to Nazis, antisemitism.
When chronically anxious Paris enters a baking contest, he meets Tariq, and the two begin dating. But Paris' struggles with his self-sabotaging behaviour; "selfish" behaviour; and unhelpful coping mechanisms (later diagnosed as Generalised Anxiety Disorder) leave a happy ever after/happy for now deeply in doubt. Personally. I thought the depiction of Paris' anxiety disorder was excellent, and it's concerning looking at the lack of empathy and compassion in many of the reactions to him as a character. It made me so sad how his parents never replied to a single one of his texts... just heart-breaking. That was a really powerful creative choice. The reason my rating was brought so low is because I think it was the wrong choice to have his mental health improve so dramatically in such a short period of time. It felt poorly researched and bad rep. There's no. way. Paris goes from his hellish state into being basically fine in a matter of a couple of weeks, when very little in his environment changes, and we don't see him learning any coping mechanisms except that he can communicate a little better with Tariq now. I would expect many months, quite possibly years of therapy before Paris makes the kind of progress we see by the end of the book, so it felt like a smack in the face considering how well his anxiety was portrayed earlier in the book.
CAWPILE: 4.5 (2*)
favourite aspect: the early representation of Paris' anxiety disorder, and the impact his mental health struggle has on everyone around him, despite his best intentions not to hurt anyone or push them away, he can't help but make everything worse, then blame himself, continuing the cycle.
a wish: for the acknowledgement that while slow improvement and progress is possible with medication, therapy, support, a change in environment, and hard work, it's laughable to present Paris as improving at the speed he did.
read this if you enjoyed: Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
rep: gay MC with extreme anxiety, later diagnosed as Generalised Anxiety Disorder; gay British-Bangladeshi Muslim LI; some queer supporting cast.
cw: extreme, constant anxiety; absent, abusive parents; Islamophobia; references to hate crimes; references to Nazis, antisemitism.
When chronically anxious Paris enters a baking contest, he meets Tariq, and the two begin dating. But Paris' struggles with his self-sabotaging behaviour; "selfish" behaviour; and unhelpful coping mechanisms (later diagnosed as Generalised Anxiety Disorder) leave a happy ever after/happy for now deeply in doubt. Personally. I thought the depiction of Paris' anxiety disorder was excellent, and it's concerning looking at the lack of empathy and compassion in many of the reactions to him as a character. It made me so sad how his parents never replied to a single one of his texts... just heart-breaking. That was a really powerful creative choice. The reason my rating was brought so low is because I think it was the wrong choice to have his mental health improve so dramatically in such a short period of time. It felt poorly researched and bad rep. There's no. way. Paris goes from his hellish state into being basically fine in a matter of a couple of weeks, when very little in his environment changes, and we don't see him learning any coping mechanisms except that he can communicate a little better with Tariq now. I would expect many months, quite possibly years of therapy before Paris makes the kind of progress we see by the end of the book, so it felt like a smack in the face considering how well his anxiety was portrayed earlier in the book.
CAWPILE: 4.5 (2*)
favourite aspect: the early representation of Paris' anxiety disorder, and the impact his mental health struggle has on everyone around him, despite his best intentions not to hurt anyone or push them away, he can't help but make everything worse, then blame himself, continuing the cycle.
a wish: for the acknowledgement that while slow improvement and progress is possible with medication, therapy, support, a change in environment, and hard work, it's laughable to present Paris as improving at the speed he did.