Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A lot of people really liked this book, there are 65 reviews, and 242 ratings on Goodreads at this point, and you should read one of those raves if you think you might want to try it. As for me, I had more mixed feelings. It is well written, there were some phrases that were so clever and wry that I laughed in that funny literary appreciation-y way that you get sometimes. I guess my problems were with the two MC's. They seemed kind of mean to me. Not in a bullying way, more in a lacking empathy and casually thoughtless of others' feelings way. That whole story with the tapestry and how it turns out - not nice, Destiny. And Beatle. You have the Playboy logo as your fb profile pic? Srsly? I honestly thought Beatle's girlfriend Cilla was the only likeable character, but heads up - don't get too attached to her, my friend. I know you're supposed to look beyond the appeal of the characters to the literary merit and all (I did concede up front that this has that!), but that's not how I like to read or review, I need to feel a connection. I really hate to sound so negative, because there are lots of fun elements to this book, besides just the witty style - the superstitions, the twins motif, Beatle's backstory with the stroke and all, the vibe of the city of Melbourne. I just looked at the blurb again, and it says this is about "everybody doing the wrong thing." Yup, that's it. Somehow Beatle and Destiny (and many other readers) found that quirky, kooky and endearing (or did they? I didn't get what attracted those two to each other in the first place), but it left me wondering why exactly I wanted to invest my emotions in them. So, one of those books for me, kind of left me wondering what's wrong with me, everybody loved it, what did I miss (Confession? I felt that way about The Hangover, too).



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