Everything's Fine

by Cecilia Rabess

A Times 100 Best Books of the Summer, Cecilia Rabess' Everything's Fine is an utterly original and deeply moving take on an age-old question from a dazzling new what have you got to lose when you fall in love?When Jess first meets Josh at their Ivy League college she dislikes him an entitled guy in chinos, ready to take over the world. Meanwhile Jess is almost always the only Black woman in their class. And Josh can’t accept that life might be easier for him because he’s white.After graduating, Jess and Josh end up working together in the same investment bank. As they lunch, spar and pick each other’s brains, Jess begins to see Josh in a different light.Soon, their tempestuous friendship turns into an electrifying romance that shocks them both, and Jess finds herself questioning who she really is and whether she's willing to compromise that for love.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Audiobook, Literary Fiction, Race, Book Club

Paperback

First published June 6, 2023

About the author

Cecilia Rabess previously worked as a data scientist at Google and as an associate at Goldman Sachs. Her nonfiction has been featured in McSweeneys, FiveThirtyEight, Fast Company, and FlowingData, among other places. Everything’s Fine is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Mariana ✨]

"she’s Black, he’s white; she’s liberal, he’s conservative; she thinks he’s a racist jerk, he finds her extremely immature"

y'all did not just compare immaturity to racism, did you? 🥴

“Jess realizes it’s more important to be happy than right.” GIRL RUN!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭

the enemies-to-lovers girlies have gone TOO FAR!!! we do NOT need more Purple-Heart-style stories!!! leave conservatives and racists out of romances, omggggggggg

i'm genuinely wondering if the author is okay asghsjkndfsak sis blink twice if you need help

[samar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality.

Everything's Fine is a book that has been harmed by its terrible marketing. It is not a romance, it's not a campy, silly, light-hearted story about "love conquering all." It is, in fact, a story with rather sinister undertones, about what one is willing to sacrifice or compartmentalize for a certain kind of love.

Jess is a Black woman struggling with her own choices. She works at Goldman Sachs and wonders if this makes her a bad person, if she's somehow morally corrupt for wanting to enjoy the finer things in life, for not sacrificing to help the cause. When she falls in love with Josh, she struggles even more to reconcile who she thinks she ought to be with who she actually is. This is not helped by Josh lovebombing her while simultaneously gaslighting her.

Josh is...interesting. I would say that one of the weaknesses of the novel is that Josh seems a bit inconsistent. At one point he talks about how institutional racism ought to be considered when discussing things like IQs and job success, but then he turns around and talks about how class trumps race, almost always. The problem, and the root of Jess's struggle, is that Josh isn't racist in the way one might normally conceptualize racism -- rather, he's got a fundamental blind spot when it comes to understanding the significant role race and racism play in, well, everything. He's not ~colorblind~, not precisely, but he's a believer in meritocracy and fiscal conservatism. He also tends to discuss everything in the abstract, as though none of it matters, none of it touches him, because, well, it doesn't. He's blind to his own privilege to a shocking degree. For someone who claims to be intelligent, he has a shocking knowledge gap when it comes to understanding institutional racism.

Jess loves him she loves him she loves him so, so much.
She thinks: There is no judgement in love.
She says, "Let's not talk about it."

Jess deals with this by compartmentalizing. She lets things slide, she doesn't confront him, she rarely argues, she lets herself be distracted by Josh's attraction to and love for her, sequesters all of his shitty opinions to some dark corner in her mind, tells herself "it's more important to be happy than to be right." But the unasked question lingers: is Jess actually happy?

Jess compartmentalizes until she can't, until it's the Trump era, and Josh remains a steadfast Republican, refusing to understand that, for many, Trump's election is genuinely traumatic, and that it's not all just political theater and empty political statements and stupid props. When Jess finds a MAGA hat in the home she shares with Josh, she is understandably disturbed. Josh insists his friend only gave it to him as a joke and that it means nothing. He genuinely cannot seem to understand the depth of Jess's anger, leading to this incredibly powerful moment that clearly elucidates how Jess's own lived experiences are inextricably linked with everything Josh seems to think is not that deep:

He says, "It's just a hat."
But it's not just a hat. It makes Jess think of racism and hatred and systemic inequality, and the Ku Klux Klan, and plantation-wedding Pinterest boards, and lynchings, and George Zimmerman, and the Central Park Five, and redlining, and gerrymandering and the Southern strategy, and decades of propaganda and Fox News and conservative radio, and rabid evangelicals, and rape and pillage and plunder and plutocracy and money in politics and the dumbing down of civil discourse and domestic terrorism and white nationalists and school shootings and the growing fear of a nonwhite, non-English-speaking majority and the slow death of the social safety net and conspiracy theory culture and the white working class and social atomism and reality television and fake news and the prison-industrial complex and celebrity culture and the girl in fourth grade who told Jess that since she--Jess--was "naturally unclean" she couldn't come over for birthday cake, and executive compensation, and mediocre white men, and the guy in college who sent around an article about how people who listen to Radiohead are smarter than people who listen to Missy Elliott and when Jess said "That's racist" he said "No,it's not," and of bigotry and smallpox blankets and gross guys grabbing your butt on the subway, and slave auctions and Confederate monuments and Jim Crow and fire hoses and separate but equal and racist jokes that aren't funny and internet trolls and incels and golf courses that ban women and voter suppression and police brutality and crony capitalism and corporate corruption and innocent children, so many innocent children, and the Tea Party and Sarah Palin and birthers and flat-earthers and states' rights and disgusting porn and the prosperity gospel and the drunk football fans who made monkey sounds at Jess outside Memorial Stadium, even though it was her thirteenth birthday, and Josh--now it makes her think of Josh.

When Jess does try to talk to Josh, to get him to understand, she feels the emotional labor of that. It's debilitating. It doesn't help that Josh is dismissive, talks over her, and speaks with such pedantry, specificity, and objectivity that everything he says is abstract, as though he's merely discussing a remote intellectual quandary rather than people's lived experiences. For Jess, of course, it's real, it's always been real, and she struggles with the reality that this person she loves refuses to see the whole of her. Josh isn't malicious -- he genuinely loves Jess -- but he loves a very specific version of her. He loves his "cool and fun" girlfriend but not the girlfriend who constantly wants him to confront the realities of institutionalized racism, who can't seem to look at things more "objectively."

There is also something deeply uncomfortable about how hard Josh tries to convince Jess that her reality is wrong. There is a scene where he makes her to watch Trump's inauguration even while she is refusing: ostensibly, this is for Jess's own good. Josh insists it's not going to be that bad, that everything Jess is imagining is worse. He laces their fingers together as they watch, as though this is some romantic date, insists that he was right, that Trump isn't that bad, trying to reassure Jess because he loves her (!!). Meanwhile, Jess is practically having an out-of-body experience as she struggles with the dissonance of it all, and Josh is none the wiser.

There's an interesting, if slightly heavy-handed, metaphor referenced through the crushed strawberries on the cover. Josh and Jess share a love of strawberries; it is their favorite fruit. Jess, however, is actually allergic to strawberries, though she continues to eat them despite this, and doesn't tell Josh until he has literally taken her to the hospital after a severe allergic reaction. That Jess willingly eating strawberries despite knowing the harm they cause her is a (somewhat belabored) reflection on her relationship with Josh. Interestingly, later, Josh mentions that he has stopped eating strawberries because Jess herself is allergic, and Jess swoons at this supposed sacrifice. Jess loves Josh, sure, but more importantly, she loves how much he loves her.

It's difficult to talk about how well this book works without spoiling the ending, but I will say: the ending is perfect. As the book was building towards its conclusion, I could feel the dread seeping off the pages, and the ending is genuinely ominous.

Ultimately, Everything's Fine takes the liberal/conservative trope or trend or whatever want to call it and breaks it open to examine all of its ugliness. We talk a lot about how depiction does not equate to endorsement, and I can't think of a clearer example than this novel. Cecilia Rabess is unequivocally telling the reader that Jess and Josh's dynamic is unhealthy and dehumanizing for Jess, and honestly, she's not even all that subtle about it after a while.

Also, functionally, this is just a very well-written book. Rabess's prose is spare but clever. She's also incredibly funny. I rarely laugh when reading, let alone when reading litfic, but I laughed out loud so many times reading this. The humor is extremely dry and tongue-in-cheek, which fits the narrative nicely. The build-up of Josh and Jess's relationship is done extremely well. The side characters could have used some more fleshing out, but they're not central to the narrative, which I think is part of the point: this is Josh and Jess's world, and they are desperate to be ensconced in their own little bubble.

I'm...extremely frustrated by the reviews that are one-star bombing without reading, and I'm extremely frustrated by the very bad marketing that makes this seem like something it's not (even the tone of the marketing is completely off!).

Anyway, this is now a favorite, and I'm going to be thinking about it for a long time.

[ladajia]

Basically Purple Hearts with a black person instead. Y’all got to go stop tagging everything as enemies to lovers when it’s really just oppressed vs oppressor. I promise you everything does not need to be published to the mass public. The world would have been fine with one less book like this.

Also, the comparing of literal RACISM to her being immature is quite the concept…an absolutely terrible one at that

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be thinking about this for a long time. The last page. Wow. Just wow.

[Mallory · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite a book. I saw it tagged as a romance but I’m not sure that’s accurate. I’m sure it doesn’t fit the enemies to lovers trope. I will say it was a hard book to read at times, when the love interest infuriates you every time they have a real conversation it’s hard to like him let alone fall in love with him. That being said I’m not sure it’s a bad concept for a book. Where are the lines? What matters and what doesn’t matter when compared to love? I like a solid ending, so it was a little frustrating that it wasn’t totally spelled out but I think it was more powerful that way. Jess and Josh met in college and Jess hated him from the moment he was quoted saying something cringy about Obama when he won. They find themselves working at Goldman and Saks and Josh seems to fit right in while Jess, who is female and Black, doesn’t fit in anywhere. I wanted to like Josh, but every time I almost got close he spoke and I hated him again. The writing was excellent and it was a heartfelt and compelling story.

I was a little surprised when I came to Goodreads. I’m disappointed in the 1 star reviews that admit blatantly that they didn’t read it but only read the blurb. I am positive if the author were white that kind of outrage wouldn’t have come, especially pre-publication. And maybe all those 1 star reviews are a little bit of the point of that sneaky racism that is rampant in our society today.

[Tania Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book captures a specific time in history when people still thought you could vote for Trump and not be racist. This books captures the experience of a Black woman who grew up surrounded by whiteness, who had no reflection of herself; not even in her own home. This is a woman who had to adapt to whiteness in order to navigate her adolescence, who fell for white boys because that was who was around her. She had no examples showing her that she was beautiful or enough just as she was. Jess’ need to make “everything fine” regardless of what is happening around her comes from the childhood trauma of losing her mother and having no outlet for her grief. As she gets older she follows the same crumbs of whiteness into jobs where she is “othered”, friendships where she is “other” and a relationship where she battles between a sense of belonging and otherness. She is an example of how we can be complicit in our own oppression. I think the book leaves us with more question than answers. It is intriguing throughout and will serves as a catalyst for conversations on bias, complicity, what it means to stand for what’s right, the complexity of relationships and ultimately the search for one’s true north. The writing is perhaps too simple but is purposefully provocative. The ending is ambiguous and dark.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Everything is not fine, this book is very much not good. It is harmful and I am sad that it was published as is. There is a sense from the marketing of the book that this is comedy, but it is not sharp enough to pull off the humor so it reads as earnest and anti-Black. There is so much placating of white guilt and diminishing of Black feelings and experiences. Also the writing itself is mediocre at best.

The one good thing in this book is that the love story (minus the disastrous racial and political dynamics) is fun and cute and enjoyable. Also there is a grief section that was well done, mostly.

I really can't even recommend this as a hate read. Ugh. I'm sad about this book being in the world, because I know it is going to suck up a lot of oxygen but it when it comes out and it's not even worthy of that discourse.

[Satoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.

Where to begin… for starters this is NOT a romance. I’d describe more psychological and Jordan Peele-esque. However, the portrayal of this as a romance is misleading and causes the book to lose its impact. I’m not sure whose idea it was to portray this as a romance but there’s nothing romantic about racism and self-sabotage and when placed in the wrong hands this book will be harmful and dangerous.

Secondly, I’m not sure who the target audience is for this book. It’s definitely not BIPOC readers. As a Black woman, I found the book incredibly difficult to get through because of the racism, gaslighting, and the constant self-sabotage.

Essentially, Jess gets into a relationship with Josh The Racist and although it doesn’t end in a happy ever after it does end with a headache. I was so confused the entire time I was reading this. Between wanting to throw my kindle out of anger at Josh’s audacity and Jess’ inability to walk away, my blood pressure was at a constant high.

The ending left me frustrated and unsatisfied. I spent 99% of the book being traumatized for what? I think I get the idea the author was trying to make but it was not well executed and she could’ve gone about it a bit differently. I also think in 2023 this book is too late and unnecessary. We don’t need a “commentary” on our “polarized times” (pulled from an editor’s review) that puts a Black woman in a relationship with a known racist.

The thing about this book is that Josh was racist from the moment he was introduced to the very end of the book. He was who he was and did not want to change. I’m not sure how we are expected to root for him or Jess. Honestly, the chemistry they had was basically non-existent. I was confused that they even got together.

Overall, I found this to be a difficult read and extremely triggering especially for Black women. Please read this with caution if you’re a person or color or Black.

[Thelibrarythief · Rating 5 out of 5]

🫶🏾my “i just finished the book omg i am in awe” review🫶🏾

this book is so good

the way that this books stresses on perspective and how impactful that can be—jess and josh are watching the same thing but they both have different takes and it’s because of their experiences is why they perceive things differently—you guys this entire book—look josh and jess have the same credentials and talent look at where they both end up at the end of the book?

she is now my favorite author

what an ending

please read this book

a more coherent review coming tomorrow

—————————————————————————————
✨my netgalley review✨

This book is on my list for my favorite reads of 2023.

Being a black woman who grew up in the surburbs and being one of the few democrats in a very republican identifying community, I can relate and see myself as the main character.

This book isn’t a thread you will read on twitter nor will it have characters being reprimanded for being unfair; mainly because this is what happens in real life and I appreciated that.

You will see flawed characters; characters that are being prejudice or having microagressions and they will not be explicitly called out or get fired from their jobs or be “canceled”; this is to represent actual reality, for the reader to see what and how it feels to be a black women in our current society.

You will feel frustration

————————————————————————————-

💓my “more coherent” goodreads review💓

5/5 stars

this was incredible, thank you

guys their relationship isn’t what you think it is and if you think that this book shouldn’t be a thing because you just scoff at the idea of this scenario being true? then you haven’t been a black woman in society—i truly believe that you guys are so UNCOMFORTABLE with this blurb that you are giving it low rating because you think that’s the “right thing to do” when in reality you are shooting down a WOC’s depiction of a very relevant and relatable experience—not all books have to have happy endings—a book has to be a feel-good story for it to not be appreciated? her writing is incredible, the uncomfortability and confusion is one i can relate to—and until you GET TO THE END you won’t truly grasp the meaning of this book and if i’m being honest if you aren’t a woman of color (specifically black) i understand why this book might be one that this scenario is so hard to imagine being a reality and uncomfortable that you won’t see…i’m so frustrated i can’t even—i’m delving into tangents…it’s just because this book is being wrongfully bashed and it makes me so sad that this incredible book isn’t falling into the right hands

this book is supposed to make you mad because these are harsh truths we deal with on the daily


this ending, oh, my, gosh—this entire book SHOWS you how things can be seen differently based off of perspective but in a metaphorical way this book was so good guys please

that ending i’m still speechless

btw to all of those people who decided from tiktok they could come and bombard this author who is a black woman about takes they have shallowly made based off of bland talking points and naively give this book a ONE! a ONE! Solely based off of the blurb alone, you are ridiculous—this book doesn’t romanticize racism in any way shape or form. This book, if you actually took the time to read and support a black author instead of quickly bashing based off of a book’s blurb, is about the uncomfortable journey of being a black woman in todays culture and navigating love.

I personally strongly emphasized with this book and could relate to it. It doesn’t remind me of Purple Hearts in the slightest. This entire book is honestly so profoundly deep and real. Maybe it’s the blurb that gives off the wrong impression, but trust me, this book isn’t, IM TELLING YOU THAT IT ISN’T, what these negative reviews ignorantly stating.

She lost who she was because she was forced to compartmentalize sooo much. After being with her grandma and taking a break from the city, she was able to find herself again. This is why, once she came back she started seeing things in a clearer lens.

P.S- this book isn’t perpetuating harmful rhetoric; for the love of all that’s good and holy trust me when i say this book is incredible and don’t make your decision off of reviews that aren’t authentic

[Kezia Duah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I appreciate the message this one was trying to send but I felt it wasn’t quite clear what it was trying to tell me most of the time. Maybe it could have been delivered better or marketed differently?

[Dona's Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found EVERYTHING'S FINE by Cecilia Rabess on the Libby app. Check for your local library on the app and read great books for free!📚

This book is beyond brilliant. I learned so much from this book, from the fact a banana is a berry (I swear; Google it) to the most armored points on WWII bombers. Such detail didn't just wash up onto the shore of the story, litter the pages-- it fit into its place and gave the book depth. Rabess built a beautiful world for her characters and readers, head deep in detail. This world work really brings the book to life, and cements it into shape.

But the oft derided relationship between the two main characters, Jess and Josh, isn't what it appears. It's a metaphor for race relations between black Americans and white leftist Americans who command that love is the solution to racism. I read so many criticisms of this book that said, "racism isn't romantic." Of freaking course it's not. That's the point of this book, to illustrate how unacceptable it is, what white Americans have offered our friend and neighbor, our coworker and partner, even our wife and lover, the Black American like Jess, who just wants to be equal. Just wants to be part of the land of opportunity. But this book needs and deserves a close reading to pick up on all this subtext.

I don't think I would have gotten as much from this book as I did, if I had not read all the reviews before going in, which is uncommon for me. I recommend doing this, to gain an understanding of the extent to which this book is a literary juggernaut.

Rating: 📬📬📬📬📬 / 5 mail-in votes
Recommend? Absolutely, read this book!
Finished: June 20 2023
Format: Audiobook, Libby
Read this book if you like:
👩🏾‍🎓 Coming of age
👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏻 Interracial romance
🗯 OWN Voices stories
🟰 Social justice

[Nerdy Norie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow, how do I express how real and true this book is. How often as a Black woman having grown up in an all white environment, am I constantly adjusting to the racist remarks and interactions, the bias responses and treatment. Yet the life you're accustomed to can appear to contradict the very argument you're trying to enlighten people with. You do feel like a hypocrite. You do feel woefully unaccepted... and unacceptable. This book is spot on!!! I mean SPOT ON! It ended and I wanted to read more about how they both were evolving because you do see growth in the pair. It's a great read!!!

[Jonathan David Pope · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to take credit for tanking the Goodreads rating on this book. I tweeted out the blurb on the back, when I received an arc of this novel, and about 1 million views later, it's currently sitting at 2.94 stars.
I honestly never planned on reading this book. I was disgusted by the premise, and very rarely hate read. But then I received a completed copy of the book, and believed that it must be fate coming across it so many times. So I sat down for about two hours, and audibly screamed at intervals while combing through this 300 page mess.
I have to say that this novel wouldn't be AS bad if it were satire. But no, Cecilia Rabess (former Goldman Sachs employee) was completely serious when she wrote this. And by serious, I mean she really believed she was writing a sexy romantic comedy. This read like a white supremacists wet dream. And apparently (based on the reviews) much of the early readership was hot and bothered.
In addition to the book description, Rabess did not gain my favorite with the opening epigraph. She had the audacity to use a quote from Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. This work is nothing Morrison would ever co-sign. I feel like she was attempting to make this work a piece of respectable literature with including that— it didn't help.
Now let's get into the plot details.
Jess is a Black girl who gets a job working for Goldman Sachs. On her first day she walks in and immediately recognizes one of her co-workers, Josh, who she met years earlier when she was in college. Now here's the kicker, the first time she met Josh was the night of Barack Obama's historical election, when there were both being interviewed on their college campus regarding their feelings regarding the moment— Josh was definitely not an Obama fan. They are also in the same class (where they argue about politics regularly, and we later learned that this is actually when Josh fell in love with Jess's body— yes, he said that he only cared about how good her body looked, let the fetishization begin.)
We slowly learn more an more about Jess' present and past life, switching from the past to present mid-page— and all I can say is, Jess set herself up to fail.
Jess's father was a DEI director at a university, advocated for his daughter in educational spaces (which apparently annoyed her) and tried to make sure she was surrounded with Black culture, and literature for Black girls when she was growing up. Yet, Jess chose to surrounded herself with white friends, intentionally did not go to Black events during college, and pined after white men who were clearly toxic. Jess slowly digs herself deeper and deeper into an anti-Black hole.
I can't even really tell you what attracts Jess to Josh, maybe it's him saying that affirmative action shouldn't exist but somehow they start dating. And this is where it really goes downhill for me.
When Jess begins to date Josh, and they have their political arguments, she honestly gets owned. Josh is a conservative Trump supporter, and though he in no way makes any worthwhile points, somehow, someway, Jess is unable to take him down. Josh absolutely destroys her and then she gets upset and they start making out. It's disgusting.
Josh sneaks around behind her back, lies to her, disparages her work, defends Trump, and so much more. Yet, she keeps coming back.
Once again, I'll say that this novel could. maybe. possibly. have been hard hitting if it was supposed to be satirical (and with better writing)— but confusedly it's marketed as a romance which scares me. Who is this novel supposed to before? It reminds me of Slave Play in a way— telling the story of a clearly unhealthy relationship but the author doing little interrogation of self. That worries me. I'm worried that the author sees hope in a relationship like this. I'm worried that folks will pick up this novel thinking that its doing something groundbreaking and encouraging folks that we should just set aside are differences and date across party lines (even if your partner is actively voting away your rights)— and that this is some profound statement.
What Cecilia Rabess thought she was doing and what she actually did are two different things. Which is why this book is probably the worst thing I've read (and will read) in 2023. Save yourself the time and money. Instead read "Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is heartbreaking that a really sharp piece of social commentary such as this has been sabotaged by a baying mob who haven’t even read the book.

This is not a romance novel and should not be marketed as such. It is a incisive look at systemic racism and the absolute blind spot so many white people have with regard to their own privilege. Hugely thought-provoking and page-turning, and that ending - wow.

To all those who came to leave a 1 star review without having actually read the book, you’ve very much missed the point of this novel. It more closely resembles Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid than an “enemies to lovers” breezy romance.

Full review to follow.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about Jess and Joss.

They had first "met" in college.

She is Black, cute, a "I believe in hope" following Obamas Democrat, righteous in your face kind of girl, and he is an ultra-conservative Republican white, blond, gorgeous kind of guy.

They meet again at Goldman Sachs years later on the job. They are both smart and both opinionated. And it isn't uncommon for them to find themselves in situations where they are arguing about race and politics and ethics. But, as it turns out, he turns out to be her best ally at work.

But as their relationship deepens, so does the political turmoil leading up to the 2016 election. And that certainly affects her relationship and feelings for Josh.

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book. But it was conversational. And visual. And the inner world of Jess and her relationship with Josh worked for me. I could feel the tension. I could see the stress of the world around them.

This isn't a light romance novel. It is a serious look at relationships and differences and tackles the question of how much we can and should tolerate from our loved ones when it comes to their beliefs and actions.

Also, the characters felt so real to me. They were so messy and didn't always do the right thing. They frustrated me at times. And they excited me, too. I could clearly feel the tension that Jess was experiencing as she questioned what to do with her Josh problem, especially when he decided to vote for you know who in the 2016 election.

I really loved this book.

I just closed the last page, and I can still feel these characters with me. I wonder if they lasted together during the four years of his presidency. How they are doing now. That is how invested I have become. I know that isn't part of the book, but, that is how I feel.

[Lauren W. Roach · Rating 1 out of 5]

First, thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for giving me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly don't even know how to rate this book on a scale. I don't think it's really deserving of a star rating, but if I absolutely HAVE to?? Then one star.

One.

My first thought was: "I am confusion." I tried to save my judgements for the end because I kept hoping there would be a lesson hidden in here somewhere. Like surprise! You thought this was a book about a relationship full of hate f**king but actually it's about this (insert profound lesson here)! After having successfully reached the end (through much effort) I'm still not even sure what the lesson was. Or IF there even was one. There were a few possibles, but with the way the book ended it invalidated all of the arguments in its favor.

At its core: it is a story of a black woman trying to navigate in a white world, without completely forgetting who she is in the process. I do believe this story could have been told without trying to shove the romance down our throats. I don't understand how romance came into play AT ALL. They had zero chemistry. They never got along. They disagreed on the most basic human rights. He told her to her face that she couldn't articulate her point on Affirmative Action because he assumed she was a direct beneficiary of it. He told her that black people have low IQs. He gaslit and belittled her in every conversation, felt the need to explain things to her as if she didn't know, even though they were in the SAME career field, and through all of that she was still able to look at him and say: "Take my pants off."

Make that make sense.

Enemies to lovers is a popular rom com trope but oppressed vs. oppressor should absolutely not be a thing involving romance. When someone tells you in so many words that people who look like you are beneath them, you need to pick up your things and run in the OPPOSITE direction.

You can read the rest of my rant here if you're interested:
https://www.thebookybabe.com/post/eve...

[Britany · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was not for me. I don't want to go into too much detail into why, because then this review will turn into this book which I did not like. Thankfully, I was able to get through it pretty quickly.

Jessica Jones gets a job as an analyst at Goldman Sachs as a black woman, she starts dating a white man. This is branded as a contemporary romance and I have no idea why (I guess enemies to lovers?) The author was trying too hard to make a point, but I couldn't tell what it was. She threw too much into this one, which caused all themes to be too thin. Ultimately the characters were unlikeable, the rhetoric was eyerolly, and the book itself will be forgettable. Onto the next!

Thank you to Book Club Favorites at Simon & Schuster for the free copy for review.

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jess gets an analyst job at Goldman Sachs but isn’t excited to learn one of her college classmates, Josh, is also on her team. Josh is a conservative white guy from Connecticut and Jess disagrees with most of his views.

As Jess continues in her new role, she often feels isolated at work yet surprised as her and Josh begin to form an unlikely friendship. Their friendship eventually grows into more, and despite their many differences, Jess is forced to consider whether she wants to be right or be happy, both personally and professionally.

Set in DC before the 2016 election, Everything’s Fine is a politically and emotionally charged story. I really had to think about how I felt about this one — I read Part One in almost one sitting, enjoying both the slow burn tension and camaraderie. I felt for Jess at times but did not agree with her perspective at others, and this back-and-forth was constant throughout the book.

Despite not always liking the characters, I appreciated how they felt realistic. I did think the dialogue leaned a bit intellectual and formal at parts, but there is something to be said for the way Everything’s Fine had me shifting how I felt as I read it.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thought provoking and slightly cringey read. Be prepared to sit in discomfort as Jess, a Black, Ivy League educated woman, navigates the cutthroat world of finance in NYC, when President Obama is first elected. She has a contentious relationship with one of her former classmates, Josh, a conservative white man. What's captured so perfectly, is her sense of being Black in a white world, and the comments made to and about her. And, knowing that the gaslighting and the deflection of the wrongness of those comments but not being to clearly articulate WHY it's wrong. As her relationship with Josh grows and develops, Jess reaches the crossroads when Trump wins the election. Everything's fine, or is it. I really hope there is a second book.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

[Sher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Thank you to #NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This book is NOT supporting or promoting the idea of romanticizing racism
so all of these people that are writing reviews for a book you haven’t read… you have no idea what your talking about
Please read the book before writing a review
However the blurb and marketing should have been done more carefully because it definitely raises some alarms

Jess and Josh’s relationship is VERY flawed
(they both only want to see a super specific side of each other (but as the end of the book suggests… *spoiler?* Jess will no longer compartmentalize her view of Josh/ and will end the relationship))
the book is just a depiction of it and is in no way saying their relationship is okay (or just fine as Complacent Gaslighting Lovebombing Josh described everything as (their relationship, their current social climate of 2016, etc))
(people who read the book recognize the crushed strawberry cover as a metaphor of their relationship)
This book posed a rather realistic WOC pov in regards to being in a predominantly white environment and how racist or prejudice behavior/ responses can affect a persons total demeanor

I didn’t LOVE this book but overall it was very thought provoking and I found myself not wanting to put it down

[Jennifer Holloway Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not look at any of the reviews prior to reading this book. Instead of actually reading the book, many have decided to try to cancel this author without even trying to read this book which was pretty great actually. If anything else, this will hopefully compel more people to actually read this book. This book is a play on differences and you could not get more different, or more crossed than this couple. There is a parallel here that really fits into the culture that still very much exists after Trump so there definitely is a timeliness to it. The dialogue was really good in this book and the author has created something that is different in a great way. Race and culture will always be noticed and have a place in relationships because of the world we live in. Bravo to this author for standing up and addressing it. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daaaaaaaaamn.

[Candice Hale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cecilia Rabess’ 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴'𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗲 is my first two star read of the year and I hate to give it to a Black author, but I cannot with a good conscience read a book that is harmful to my very existence as a Black woman. Black lives and feelings are not given the space to exist wholly or fully in this novel if not being placated by white guilt. The book is grossly marketed as “painfully funny….heartfelt” and it saddens me that others will read this book thinking one thing and be traumatized by another.

If you’re a reader like me, then you’ll need an EpiPen on standby. The content stings you with a horrible rash of irritation, bile, and shame, especially if you’re a Black female reader because you’re wondering why would Rabess put this work into the atmosphere; and, secondly, what’s the point of even making us relive the worst moments in political history during 2016-2020 with an incompetent man child at the helm. I’m highly allergic to the large doses of anti-black rhetoric disguised as an enemies-to-lovers romance trope between intellectuals that Rabess perpetuates here—I don’t care how crafty her writing is. It served no purpose here, but to further demonize and hurt Black and Brown people. I mean Jess even says at one point: “Love conquers all, except geography, and history, and contemporary sociopolitical reality.” Then, she continues to feign happiness in a relationship that oppresses her. Make it make sense. Ain’t no dichotomy worth that!

It pains me that the MC Jess loses her mother as a young girl and leaves her father right after college because by doing so she forgoes a good chance of learning Black family history and culture, which could’ve been beneficial in supplementing a stronger Black identity. By being in mostly white spaces, Jess has assimilated into white spaces that still create buffers to keep her on the peripheries. The reality is that everything is not fine. It is so bad—just like this book.

Rating: ⭐️

(Edit: After the gutting of Affirmative Action and the write up in the NYT, I took away a star because Trump's stacked SCOTUS is to blame so everything is clearly not fine. And, you wouldn't need to worry about review bombing if your book didn't suck ass. Again, it's not your writing, but your content)

[michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

sheeeeesh the goodreads girlies are not gonna like this one... (and judging by the 2.6 rating on here -- for a book that doesn't come out until june -- they already don't!)

trust me, i was skeptical. do not read the back blurb, it really does not capture the nuance that this book is written with. (i know, the book jacket makes it feel oh so very Lifetime Drama / Reese's Book Club / Wine Mom Fridays.)

this is so much more than a "romantic comedy" about people on different political lines not getting along. it's a bold depiction of what it's like to be a bipoc woman in the boys club of business and tech. a compulsively readable take on what it would ACTUALLY be like to fall in love with someone you shouldn't. and if you can't explore the nuances of complicated messy human emotions in fiction, where can you?

whatever, i liked it, i await the onslaught of disney brain internet hate

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed impressions

The question I continued to ask myself as I read this book was: What was its objective? What was the author trying to express or convince me of? Based on its style and delivery, I felt there was more to this work than the storyline since, to be fair, it didn’t match the patterns of a traditional romance. Purple prose of vignettes strung upon each other, one after the other, interspersed with racial study without the richness of a cohesive story. Vague character description and character development, the characters weren’t tangible with a strong sense of physicality, or presence. With the exception of a few attributes what did they even look like? It was as if I were reading two personages espousing their beliefs, their political and social stances — a thoughtmance — with some light romance and Jessie's friendships and father's influence thrown in. Most certainly a book more centered around the young woman protagonist, Jessie, than her interest, Josh, but they were not exactly opposites either.

Adapting to the writing style, the story took a bit to get into, feeling slow initially, especially since it was in third person, omniscient, not limited. I felt most often that I was being narrated to rather than immersed into the lives and minds of the main characters. Third person doesn't feel as modern or engaging as first person, especially if not done well, and, unfortunately, the perspectives combined with the writing style did not place me front and center in this novel. I found myself having to refocus in the earlier chapters.

So what is this story about? What's the message?
A study of racial basis and marginalization in the U.S. presented from Jess's perspective as both her distaste for it and her tolerance of it as well as her love interest’s contrasting sentiment? Up and coming stockbroker in a dynamic and competitive work environment. It's all about the money and the right people. Jess never seemed to fit in the traditional working environment where money making and affluence were pillars of success. Her lack of fitness was so obviously and easily assigned to her temperament, which was just code for non acceptance, not assimilating, not playing the game hard enough or knowing the rules of engagement into the white privileged setting. When the truth was, for people like her, there is no entry.

Josh was an unconscious contributor to that inequality, either because he agrees with the setup explained from and waived by his arrogant, superficially intellectualized spin or because he was just insensitive to it. Unenlightened, he couldn’t appreciate it since he's unaffected by it. He also believed himself right since he didn't grown up with advantages: he didn't come from a wealthy background and was a scholarship recipient who made his way. Of course, he was unaware of, or chose to disregard, the advantages he innately possessed or contacts surrounding him. Then, there was Jess's guilt over participating in her boyfriend's advantage, living in his million-dollar condo. Is she a sell out? Does she have a call to duty? And is love enough?

This book explored social issues mixed in a light romance; inequality, having to be more than best even when you’re successful empirically, the subtleties of marginalization of People of Color and the mixed views and feelings surrounding them. Do you sacrifice your beliefs for love?

Josh was initially the classic Republican conservative who came around to more inclusive ways of thinking though likely not so much due to wanting to but more because he was in love with Jess. He had always held a candle for her to the degree that he fights for her. The author did a good job of presenting his blinded point of view as if it could have been her own; she also did a great job infusing the character’s personality with limiting, unconscious, and largely unchanging stances.

Jess was portrayed as marginalized, which she couldn't control and which was almost impossible to fight. But what bothered me was this story didn't demonstrate her bucking the system. Even her father called for it. She complained but stayed in under represented, marginalized positions, people interactions, jobs. Did she have a call to duty simply because though?

Why didn’t Jessie fight, push back in line with her father's purpose? She didn’t really challenge Josh either. Jess was even placating. Why did Josh have to have the more prominent position? I understood Jess’s insecurities but why not give her she some fight, some self-esteem, boundaries. At times depressing as it was dispiriting, and the romance didn't temper the sense of fruitlessness.

And even when Jess attempted to rebel, she couldn't be as financially prosperous as Josh. Instead, answering the call, she worked for a sensationalist newspaper with sub-par pay. I guess it's OK if the pay was subpar because she couldn’t be represented maintaining her values and have a moderate income? It was also ok for her successful boyfriend to subsidize her. Something was off with portraying Jess as only successful if she held to her values but with a low income, low prosperity. She couldn't overcome, have some wins, as it was better to be true to yourself even if you struggle. Come on!

And yet ... I could feel it all and identify with it, and hated reading the reality of that in fiction where characters should have power.

I loved that Josh loved Jess, that he always loved her, waited for her, wanted her. Unfortunate for my spicy heart, it did not translate into the best sex scenes. It wasn't a clean romance, but it wasn't erotic either.

The third-act split, and for a long time. Sure, Jess had a family emergency -- which was depicted well, but still. Why be apart so long (and so typically)?

Josh voted for and reassured Jess about Trump. He remained fiscally conservative. She remained left-leaning … and conflicted. And I remain confused by this book: the reality, the fallacy, the interpersonal conflict. Love may not be enough.

Anticlimactic. Mixed feelings.

[Shereadbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Jess is hired at Goldman Sachs, she finds, much to her discomfort, that she will be working with Josh, someone she knew from college with whom she often found herself at odds. She is also the only Black woman in her section, something she is accustomed to having grown up with her father in Nebraska. Strangely, Jess finds herself attracted to Josh and the feeling is mutual. Jess is liberal; Josh claims to be a moderate, but he leans toward conservative and he did vote for Trump.

This is a great debut novel. I enjoyed it despite being annoyed by Jess and her irresponsibility to herself. While I NEVER would defend a Trumper, I also do think she was a bit of a hypocrite. This is a clever, crisply written novel that explores a range of issues including racism, politics, misogyny, social/economic identity. Many of the thoughts and arguments have been played out over and over in our country in the last six years…lots of food for thought (or grist for the mill) here.


Thanks to #netgalley and #simon&schuster for the ARC

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a case of a good book being marketed to the wrong people.

Some people apparently heard "interracial romcom" and went in expecting Talia Hibbert fluff with three adverbs per sentence and a cinnamon roll MMC. This book was not that. It's not a whimsy enemies-to-lovers story where one MC spilt coffee on the other and now they 'hate' each other. It is not self-insert escapism. There are no misunderstandings that get resolved in the end. The problems are not solved with a declaration of love and a grovel scene. It is not a low-angst, anti-conflict romantic slice of life. There is no HEA. Not even an HFN. Everything was not fine.

It's a Women's Fiction story about a black woman who has W.E.B. Du Bois as a father. She has internalized ideas of being in the talented one-tenth and feels like she's supposed to be an activist for social issues that affect the black American community. Daddy Du Bois, however, also removed her from any trace of blackness for her own good and raised her in a majority-white community in Nebraska where she was the only black girl in her class/town/village, so the end result is that Jess is a slightly classist, insecure, isolated, lonely black girl with some self-esteem problems who went through life chasing projected "black excellence" with all the emphasis on the excellence part and who now wants to be a talented one-percenter.

This book is the story of a black girl who tries to go through corporate life taking the Reese Witherspoon "What, like it's hard?" approach because her father dropped the ball on raising a black daughter. For instance, when she starts hanging up posters of the typical white teen heartthrobs, she doesn't get a speech on prioritizing herself or respecting herself or any of the real issues that are going to come up for a black teenage girl in a white town. Instead, he tells her to consider the feelings of a hypothetical black boy who might not approve of her wall decoration. (Daddy Du Bois isn't exactly a feminist icon and does things like buy his daughter Essence magazines so she can figure out tampons on her own.)

The Legally Blonde approach to college and investment banking doesn't pan out for her, because she's not blonde, obviously, and because working twice as hard doesn't always work. She gets into hot-takes-on-twitter activism and doing data science for a magazine, but it doesn't pay as well as being a trader at Goldman Sachs or the hedge fund she used to work at so there are moral compromises along the way. Like, moving in with a guy who voted for Romney (and then Trump).

There's an embarrassing attempt at romance with Ivan, the typical frat boy asshole, who cheats on her, and then there's Josh who's the genius coder-trader who she mostly wants to be but will settle for being with. Josh isn't the MMC of a romance novel. He's just another "proof of excellence" item Jess feels the need to acquire because she needs the validation that black girls don't get when they grow up motherless and familyless and friendless in Nebraska.

Some people might read it as a love story, but it's not quite that imo. Love stories are about characters loving each other, addressing their internal conflicts, and growing together to be something stronger, unified, a tag-team that can face anything the world throws at in. Jess and Josh don't do any of that. They stick an 'It's fine' label on the problem and move on.



When Jess tells Josh that they're supposed to face the world together, she's being sarcastic, and when Josh gives Jess a WW2 fighter place replica that's supposed to be a symbol of their love taking shots but flying on because the engine is intact, it's at the end of the novel and he's stepping on her Trump protest placards and I feel like it's pretty clear that the plane is already on fire and going down at some point even if it glides for a while Dunkirk style.

Jess is an insulated new adult having a delayed coming-of-age story, who's trying to discover the difference between greed and need, what success and excellence should look like for a black girl in STEM in white male-dominated fields: should she play along to get along and earn her own high rise, or should she take her toys, leave the sandbox, and shack up with a sugar daddy? She's figuring out where she draws her lines and what exactly is fine and what her own internalised prejudices are and what's the difference between a microaggression and aggressive physical assault and what the proper reaction is in either case. She's figuring out how to balance her black girl magic with her black girl anger and her white girl upbringing and her rich white girl tastes in food and clothes and living accommodations. She's figuring out what she's supposed to say or do in any given situation where she finds herself both 'at the table' and 'the only black person in the room.'

This is not a cute love story, it's a black girl bildungsroman. And if the marketing team had sold it as such, I think there'd have been much fewer one-star reviews from people who didn't even read the book or people who think it's anti-black and who think the author is an anti-black black woman simply because the book is about pervasive anti-blackness. I feel sad that we live in a world where people will go hard to drag a debut black author with only a glance at the author's profile, without even reading the book, because they'd rather judge it off the comments on Tiktok, while people like Stephen King are still writing love letters to 1950s white America and scoring best book nominations.

If you look at the romantic subplot as garnishing you're not supposed to swallow, it's very digestible. The pacing is perfect. The timeline is both spiraling and looping, and I just want to throw heaps of stars and likes and kudos at the author for pulling it off so flawlessly. Like, structurally, it's such an intricate type of story weaving, I'm honestly in awe of the technique. To write something like this, I'd need, like, five years and a mind map with 1000s of index cards, but Cecilia Rabess makes it seem so effortless, especially considering it's a debut novel, that I almost want to map it out myself just to see the web on a wall. I like the design and I like the ambition. I love when people in STEM defy the stereotype of being uncreative/unimaginative/unfunny. This was brilliant.

Maybe I'm biased. I'm not American, I don't even live in a white majority country, and I can still relate to that experience of everyone wondering, "Well, how did you get in here with the rest of us?" or being accused of plagiarism in school because you did something "suspiciously" well. I mean, which black girl who's ever spent a day in STEM hasn't been at the crossroads of "Fuck this" and "I am compelled by the power of Christ and the ancestors to do this"? Yes, Jess makes some very glaring wrong turns, and at some points, she's straight up circling her own vomit in a circle, and it's kind of painful and kind of cringe, but it's a very relatable experience that's hard to articulate. And I think it's just a shame more people didn't come at it from an open-minded approach instead of the "this is a romance novel I want to get happy feels from" approach.

Which again, I blame on marketing. There are so many different genres masquerading as romance novels these days, it's a tempting thing to stick the romance label on a book and throw it out there to see who bites, but it did this book a disservice. Call it literary fiction, and if you don't get bestseller status, then you don't, but you also won't get a ton of 1-star reviews from people who expected a romance novel, and your talented debut author doesn't get review-bombed.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know everyone is reading Yellowface but I think this is a superior book about race and the workplace (in this case the banking/trading industry). There’s also a camouflaged rom-com within its covers steeped in satire. It’s so good. There is one beat too many but otherwise I adored this book. I read it because Meg Mason and Curtis Sittenfeld endorsed it so if you don’t trust me, trust them. Ignore the awful cover. Read this one. Nothing’s fine.

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jess wollte eigentlich nie in der Finanzbranche arbeiten, da sie von ihrem Gehalt bei einer kleinen feministischen Zeitschrift aber nicht leben kann, bemüht sie sich um einen begehrten Job bei Goldman Sachs in New York - und erhält die Zusage! Gleich an ihrem ersten Arbeitstag trifft sie auf ihren ehemaligen Kommilitonen Josh, dessen reaktionäre Ansichten ihr schon im Studium auf die Nerven gegangen sind. Doch bereits nach kurzer Zeit stellt sich heraus, dass Jess in ihrem Job als Schwarze Frau sämtliche Steine, die zu finden sind, in den Weg gelegt werden und ihr Josh als wichtiger - und einziger - Verbündeter zur Seite steht. Die beiden diskutieren, werden Freunde und verlieben sich, was keinesfalls geplant war - und noch mehr Probleme mit sich bringt.

Jess und Josh - allein dem Namen nach sind die beiden ein perfektes Paar. Auch die Chemie stimmt, es herrscht eine kaum zu übersehende Anziehungskraft zwischen ihnen, der sie sich nicht entziehen können, auch wenn sie sonst ungefähr alles trennt, was das Leben zu bieten hat. Sie bewegen sich in ungleichen finanziellen Sphären, umgeben sich mit unterschiedlich gesinnten Menschen und wählen verschiedene Parteien. Kann eine Beziehung, die sich mit so vielen Gegensätzen konfrontiert sieht, funktionieren? Dieser Frage geht Cecilia Rabess in ihrem Debütroman "Alles gut", in der Übersetzung von Simone Jakob, mit viel Charme und Witz auf den Grund. Ich habe das Buch innerhalb eines Tages verschlungen, es ist super kurzweilig und zugänglich geschrieben und bietet dabei viel Stoff zum Nachdenken und Diskutieren, weshalb ich den Roman vor allem auch als Buchclublektüre empfehlen würde. Romance trifft hier auf Gesellschaftskritik - clever, fesselnd und sehr unterhaltsam!

[Sandra T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess
~~~~~
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
 #EverythingsFine #NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan, Picador for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
~~~~~
Jess and Josh are polar opposites—she’s black, he’s white; she’s liberal, he’s conservative—whose mutual hatred transforms into mutual attraction and love. Opposites can certainly attract, but ultimately can they work?
~~~~~
I really enjoyed this and stayed up way past my bedtime to finish it. This is a debut novel and an absolute page-turner. The writing is confident and compelling, the characters are well fleshed-out and despite their profound differences, I became attached to them both. I also wanted to slap them both upside the head as they can be very frustrating characters.

I am not a romance reader, and the miscommunication/misunderstanding trope - which this book relies on a lot - makes me roll my eyes but this romance had teeth and it was thought-provoking and sometimes enraging: Jess' struggle to make her mark in a male-dominated field, the battle between her heart and her mind, how much she's willing to compromise for someone she loves, the "It's just a hat" argument (iykyk; I wanted to throw my Kindle at the wall! 😖)

If you like endings that are neatly tied up in a bow, you will not find this ending satisfying. I loved it even though my jaw dropped and I was left whimpering "oh sh*t...."

This is out in June 2023; I predict it's going to be big and I highly recommend you read it.
~~~~~