This coming of age story has a woman revisiting her past relationship with a famous author. In 2015 while living and working in Chile, Tatum receives a call from a reporter about M Dominguez being accused of assault. Tatum knows M Dominquez as Mateo, the author of her favorite book. While talking with the reporter, Tatum starts to reexamine her relationship with Mateo in the form of an email to him. She starts with her life in Texas and how she loved books leading her to a college in Massachusetts. During her senior year, she writes fan letter to Mateo and he writes her back with his email. Tatum and Mateo began a correspondence which eventually leads to a friendship, which Tatum hopes to be more. After college, she moves to New York where Mateo lives and gets a job as a teaching assistant. For a decade, they have a one-sided toxic relationship as Mateo comes and goes from her life, taking Tatum with him for readings of his book across the country and only paying her mind when he needs her to feed his ego. What will happen to make Tatum see Mateo’s true colors and will she let him go?
This story has a fast pace at the start, but slows as Tatum lives in New York. Eventually, the way Tatum puts up Mateo gets frustrating and annoying. The story is told in first person by Tatum and alternates between her past and her present in 2015. Tatum is realistic character, a woman trying to find her place in the world. Mateo was a huge jerk. The settings are well-described. The ending wraps her relationship with Mateo, but we do not get to find out how Tatum ended up in Chile, how she met her current partner, or the aftermath of the reporter’s story. I liked the story, ut I would have liked less Mateo and more of Tatum after him. The cover interesting with the New York skyline, but after reading the book the figs on the cover now gross me out a bit. Fans of books like Olga Dies Dreaming would enjoy this one.
This story has a fast pace at the start, but slows as Tatum lives in New York. Eventually, the way Tatum puts up Mateo gets frustrating and annoying. The story is told in first person by Tatum and alternates between her past and her present in 2015. Tatum is realistic character, a woman trying to find her place in the world. Mateo was a huge jerk. The settings are well-described. The ending wraps her relationship with Mateo, but we do not get to find out how Tatum ended up in Chile, how she met her current partner, or the aftermath of the reporter’s story. I liked the story, ut I would have liked less Mateo and more of Tatum after him. The cover interesting with the New York skyline, but after reading the book the figs on the cover now gross me out a bit. Fans of books like Olga Dies Dreaming would enjoy this one.