Review: Love, Fortunes, and Other Disasters

I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with silly. The problem is when silly becomes almost self-parody in a way. Love, Fortunes, and Other Disasters is a book about a town that has been basically governed by love charms in its romantic relationships, and about the students who have tasked themselves to end this entire thing. The story is actually fairly low-key and sometimes a little sad, as one might expect. The problems with this book, though, are fairly significant. The story attempts to have a weight of sorts with the charms and the impact it has one the people, but the stakes never feel too high. And I don't want to spoil the ending, but I can say that the ending is entirely ridiculous in a way that almost negates the limited good will that the book had created to start out. It's not easy to toe the line between seriousness and whimsy, but this book either doesn't try at all or utterly misses the mark as it swings wildly between the tones. I can't even figure out the audience for this one on a whole, as the appeal is so strange and limited. Ultimately, skip this one.