Where do I even begin with this book? I know it’s early in the year, but this has to be one of my favourite’s that I’ve read this year. It has a good message, it’s completely unique, I loved the characters, and I just felt so good reading it that I spread it out as long as I could, which is something that I don’t often do.
Tropetown is a town where fictional cliché and stereotypical characters live when they’re not working in the stories, different from where the main characters live, and a lot different than where the readers live. Following the last remaining Manic Pixie Dream Boy in town, Riley, it shows his life in first person as he goes through the hardest part of this short life so far, first beginning group therapy and then facing retirement because of what he is. I was immediately interested in his character, not because of his stereotype fully, but because he’s such a thoughtful person, and he really tries hard to carve out his own life, to be different and to make himself happy. And I think that’s something that I really needed to learn from someone else. Riley is that someone else.
After accidentally bumping into a girl named Zelda, another Manic Pixie but a Dream Girl, he knows she’s someone he wants in his life. Though she does send mixed signals, she’s most of what he thinks aout, and even more once he realizes that they’re in the same Manic Pixie Group Therapy. The characters in the therapy group really grow together, and I loved (almost) every one.
I think that this book is really about finding yourself within your stereotype, not being ashamed of it, but making it your own completely. I loved how good this book made me feel, even at the low points, because even though the world and the characters were fictional, they were really relatable and easy to love. The way they acted and the people they were seems like something to strive for, and I would love to take bits of their personality and add it into my own. My favourite character, of course, is Riley for all of those reasons.
Overall, I know I loved this book because of how long I stretched out reading it for. Even though I have so many books that I need to read, I made this last all weekend, and I wish there was more I could know about it. It’s something I just need for my bookshelf, and I know it’s something that I would read again. No matter what kind of books you read, I think that you should check this one out.
The book is available here, and here’s a link to the author’s Twitter.
Thanks for reading!
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