overall, a fun, original novel that got me out of my reading slump

pros:
- i liked the disability and mental illness rep. I initially thought Arya had autism, but other reviewers had said its a combination of social anxiety and Tourettes, which does make more sense. Either way, she was a very interesting character and i liked her a lot.
- i liked the openess about sex and Arya being frank about. That Tobias is kinky and yet still framed as a very likeable character is unfortunately unusual, but very welcome.
- the writing itself was a lot of fun. very stream of consciousness, for better or worse. it's a bit David Copperfield at the start, but funny enough that it doesn't matter. 

cons:
- whilst the book openly embraces Arya being forthright about her sexuality, there are moments of slut-shaming towards others, which was weird, and also Craig is repeatedly shamed for having a low libido. Yes, he's a self-centred, boring jerk, but saying that he doesn't like sex as a means of *explaining* why he's boring is lazy and hurtful. He's not unhappy with his low libido and while he and Arya were a bad match, there's nothing wrong with him not being very interested in sex.
- while the writing was entertaining, i did get tired of all the 'accidental, convinient meet-ups', clues dropping into Arya's lap, and somewhat disjointed connections between scenes. Also, i thought the book could very easily been a standalone and might have been better as one, as the ending was extremely abrupt and didn't fit very well with Arya's character arc.

overall, i liked Arya a lot and enjoyed this, and when i wasn't reading it, i wished that i was. however idk if i'll go to the expense of buying the second.