PamG is a long time fan of Smart Bitches Trashy Books. A former library worker at her alma mater (hs), she is now retired and devoting her time to reading and occasionally commenting on same. She also enjoys memorizing songs and poetry, spontaneously bursting into song, playing with the Merlin app on her phone, and writing the occasional poem.

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I can’t even count the number of times I’ve begun a sentence with “I don’t generally like multiple timelines, BUT. . . .”

Sadly, when it comes to When Javi Dumped Mari, I have no buts left to give. Don’t get me wrong. This book is extremely well written and works exactly as it’s intended to. WJDM is an excellent example of a perfectly executed story that simply doesn’t work for a given reader, i. e., moi. I intend to explore the many excellencies of this book first before I tackle the elements that troubled me.

When Javi Dumped Mari opens with Javi and Mari, best friends since college, meeting up for one of their semi regular dinners to catch up with each other. Javi has good news to share, but is a bit nervous, and when Mari arrives, she also has news–and a new-minted fiance to share. (Not that way!) Javi is understandably shocked, since he and Mari have a pact in which each gets veto power over the other’s incipient relationships. Not only are Mari and Alex getting married, they’re doing it in six weeks!

This awkward restaurant meet-up is described over two chapters from first Javi’s, then Mari’s point of view. From there, the story segues to their first meeting during their second year of college when Javi catches Mari swiping a stack of school newspapers to protest their offensively sexist content. Their first few encounters are humorously antagonistic, but it isn’t long before mutual respect and friendship blossoms.

The story continues in dual viewpoints over almost a twelve year span with irregularly spaced chapters punctuated by random text and voice messages. There are three larger sections: The Seed, The Weed, and The Bloom. Each is populated by chapters that take place “Now” and chapters that take place beginning at “11 years, 7 months before the wedding,” when the protagonists first met. Basically both the present chapters and the flashbacks count down to the wedding weekend through the first two sections of the book.

Section three, The Bloom, takes place in the immediate run-up to the wedding, except for a single flashback chapter. Amazingly, all this complex structure actually works. I never really found it confusing, and it did a great job of explaining how Mari and Javi arrived at the “Now.”

One of the big things that this structure does very well is define the differences between present and past Mari and Javi. I’m always impressed when a book using dual first person POV manages to consistently differentiate between the storytellers’ unique voices, and in this case, there are four distinct voices for two characters. There are the brash, shiny college age MCs and there are the mature, muted adult MCs. The reader slowly understands the gradual transition between them as their story unfolds.

Most importantly, Mari and Javi are beautifully drawn characters, well worth understanding both individually and as two parts of a pair. College aged Mari is a brilliant, dynamic, extroverted young woman, the cynosure of all eyes in whatever room she occupies. Young Javi is more introverted but equally bright with an artistic sensibility and a gift for outside the box problem solving. Below the surface, sparks fly, but neither is willing to risk their friendship in the face of their very different futures. So UST and pining are major features in this story.

Both protagonists are active in the Latinx community on campus. From the time that Mari and Javi meet, their family and cultural backgrounds feature prominently in their interactions. Mari is Brazilian American, and Javi defines himself as Nuyorican. This is foundational to their identities, and permeates the entire story. Heritage provides both common ground and cultural difference.

Class is another source of difference, if not conflict. Mari comes from money, while Javi’s parents are the sort of middle class that tend to have five figure salaries. Dad is a clerk and mom is a teacher. This gap is not an issue for them in college, but looms larger through the years. Economic class creates blind spots for both of them that neither their friendship nor their attraction can fully eliminate, and that eventually becomes a major problem.

As adults, their personalities show a certain amount of wear and tear, some of it caused by lapses in their friendship that are revealed during flashbacks. Their voices are calmer and perhaps a little less certain, though their bond is still strong. And that pesky attraction never goes away.

Supporting characters are drawn with the same sharp, perceptive eye for detail. Mari’s bridal party consists of her two best friends since college, a close friend from work, and, of course, Javi. The women are terminally badassed–blunt, hilarious, and loyal to a fault. As characters, they are entertaining as hell. Both Javi’s and Mari’s families play a part in this story, but their portrayals are considerably less detailed. Mari’s father and Javi’s brothers are a major presence in their lives–and not in a good way–yet they are not a strong presence in the book. Mari’s mother and Javi’s college friend Jeremy are barely sketched in for the roles they play and I would have welcomed seeing more of them. But the real triumph is the portrayal of Mari’s fiance.

Alex is introduced in chapter one, but he never gets a chance to tell his story. We only know him from the protagonists’ observations and conversations. Mari’s interactions with Alex are tinted with her adult need for calm and stability, while Javi views Alex with tightly leashed antagonism. I was constantly asking myself whether something was a red flag or a slanted viewpoint. Alex was not a sympathetic character for me, but I didn’t truly expect him to be. I never knew whether I was reading about a villain or a perfectly normal guy feeling twinges of jealousy for his fiancé’s male best friend. I was ok with this; I thought it was fair. One of the upsides of first person POV is the way it turns character development into unraveling a mystery. Some people dislike it. I consider it a feature not a bug.

While I fully appreciate the skill and creativity that went into this story, I do have some serious reservations. These are based in my personal responses rather than some abstract “standard.”

First of all, as my reading progressed, I kept having to take little breaks to alleviate mental discomfort. It took awhile for me to identify my discomfort as anxious feelings. I don’t want to call it anxiety because it wasn’t a diagnosis but rather an amorphous irritation. Some of the plot elements made me really uncomfortable. I felt like the Jaws theme was pounding in the back of my mind, and I kept looking for the Big Bad or evidence of conspiracies.

I was also bothered by the way neither protagonist was able to get their strongest feelings out into the open, how they both made assumptions about the other’s needs and about their inability to fulfill those needs. All this happened over years. I was actively worried about how they would achieve their HEA with their integrity intact.

Another aspect of my mental discomfort was the feeling that the elaborate structure of the book was kind of manipulative. There was a whole lot of hinting going on before information was revealed. The timelines are wicked convoluted and I had to break it down before I could even attempt this review. All storytellers manipulate their audience to some degree, but I didn’t like seeing the wires.

Finally, the biggest dealbreaker for me was the use of humiliation humor.

Aside from my dislike of this type of humor, it really didn’t make a lot of sense to me in context. It was deliberate and premeditated, but also irrational, with the ability to upend the culprit’s intent. I feel like all of my reservations about WJDM are somewhat connected, but the humiliation humor guarantees that I won’t reread this book even though I loved the main characters.

So, read this book for the solid writing, excellent characterization, frequent humor, and emotional story, or read it for your Bingo card. Friends to lovers, class differences, or a third unnamed category that might spoil the ending. Overall, I’m glad I read it, reservations and all.