Book Review: What I’d Rather Not Think About

What I’d Rather Not Think About
by Jenta Posthuma
Review by Rosa

Deceptively simple, What I’d Rather Not Think About tells the story of the love between twins. Comprised of vignettes, some playful and some deeply profound, the narrative floats around in time from the twins’ childhood into adulthood and the aftermath of the brother taking his own life. It’s made up of wandering thoughts, dreams, memories, snippets of therapy sessions, and references to diary entries and episodes of ‘Survivor’.

The twin sister’s story highlights the conflicting feelings of being too much and also not enough; of being so close to someone and yet so far apart; of loving a person overwhelmingly but still resenting them greatly for their presence and their absence. The characters were flawed and dysfunctional and so, so human. Jente Posthuma has created a beautifully vulnerable, confrontational, and painfully honest story of love, loss and trying to understand one another. I couldn’t put it down.