Read The Problem With Forever (Spoiler-Free)
I RARELY HAVE MUCH TO SAY about YA Romance stories. Primarily because I don't read a lot of YA Romance. And what I do read usually ends up subpar. I can't say that about The Problem With Forever. Jennifer Armentrout blew me away with this authentic, emotional insight into the life of Mallory Dodge. The Problem With Forever has cemented itself in my permanently enjoyable re-reads list.
Protagonist
When I think of the perfect way to write a female protagonist, the first character that pops to mind is Mallory Dodge. A big part of that reason is because Mallory remains consistent with her character arc over the course of the story. That's not to say she doesn't grow, in fact, her growth is what captivated me so much.
Brought up in an abusive foster came home, the story follows Mallory and her love interest, Rider four years later. While Mallory is adopted into a loving home, her foster parents both being doctors. Rider is left to a series of group homes. Jennifer Armentrout does a great job exploring the long-lasting emotional damage the two suffer because of their upbringing. For our purposes, let's focus on Mallory. She has an extreme aversion to speech. In her abusive home, a survival mechanism she learned was to be quiet, to try to blend in with the background. The less she talked, the less her foster parents noticed her. This despite therapy, has stuck with her as she enters her senior year of high school (after being home schooled). It's an accomplishment for her if she manages three or four words a day, let alone a sentence. One of the major challenges going into her senior year is a public speaking seminar type class that's a graduation requirement. It's in this class that she meets Rider again.
Mallory's growth remains consistent—linear in other words, over the course of the story. This is the biggest selling point of the story. Unlike The Fault in Our Stars, for example, in which Hazel didn't captivate me as much because of the stagnation in her character, The Problem With Forever, does a great job of pacing Mallory's growth. She doesn't grow out of her shell immediately. It's a slow, methodical journey that takes her to the person she is at the end of the novel. And each step in how she got there is clearly illustrated to the audience. So, when the pay-off arrived at the end, I had an "ah ha" moment and got all warm and fuzzy on the inside because I knew exactly how Mallory grew.
Writing Style
The Problem with Forever, like most of the novels in YA fiction, is written in the first person present tense. What Jennifer Armentrout does so well is how she consistently sticks with the "rules" she establishes and how she methodically works around them. Sound confusing? Let me explain.
One of the "rules" the author establishes is Mallory's hardship talking. She sticks with this through the course of the entire novel. There is never an instance in which Mallory breaks character accidentally and rambles on. This leads me to my next point: Mallory's growth.
The author proceeds to break some of the "rules" set for Mallory eventually in the story, such as her speech problem. But it's done in a way that the audience knows how she got to the point where she had the capacity to break that rule. There is no moment in the novel where she spontaneously starts singing for example, or yelling unless there is a buildup to it—an explanation. That's what's done so well. When Mallory does break the "rules" set on her, the audience understands why and more importantly, recognizes how it was possible due to character growth.
This intimacy with the protagonist is why a lot of authors opt for the first person present tense. And I can say with confidence that here, Jennifer Armentrout nailed it. By the end of the novel, I was in tears.
Relationships
Honestly, when I picture intimate relationship in the YA romance genre, I think of The Problem With Forever. This novel acts as my yardstick when comparing other books that share the genre. Before I explain why Mallory's budding relationship with Rider is heartwarming to read, I'm going to address her relationship with her best friend: Ainsley.
Part of the reason it's such a pleasure to read is because it's a long-distance friendship. The author tries to illustrate the different forms of love over the course of this story. Not only proximity but also how friends contrast with lovers. Mallory's encounters with Ainsley are heart felt because throughout the course of the novel, Ainsley tries to be a dominating presence in Mallory's life precisely because she recognizes that it's hard for Mallory to communicate. At some point in the novel, their roles actually reverse; Mallory being proactive because she cares is just an example of how she grows as a character, that growth being consistent with her character arc. For example, if she had just suddenly decided to be a dominating person, that would not have been consistent. But because something happens to Ainsley, Mallory wants to be a stronger presence in her friend's life.
Second, the budding relationship with Rider is heartwarming to read because as I mentioned above, both of them were scarred emotionally from their upbringing. Navigating the relationship as a reader is heart felt because again, this is a point of growth for Mallory in which she makes Rider confront his own issues because she loves him and that takes a lot of courage on her part.
Even her relationships with her parents add an extra layer of complexity to the story. Since her foster parents adopted her after the death of their daughter, when Mallory grows as a character, and starts to act out, this causes strife in their relationship. For example, she is groomed to be a doctor just like her foster parents. But as she grows as a character, she discovers that she wants to explore a different field. This forces her parents to acknowledge that Mallory is her own person and not their dead daughter.
