Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble (Winner Bakes All, #2) in Rolling with the lgbt

Dec 15, 2022 Eva B. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, queer-leads, favorite-characters, friendships-are-magic, metaphorical-tears-were-shed, best-of-the-best-of-the-best

Okay, I understand all of the reviews talking about how this one was draining or exhausting or annoying this book and Paris's narration were but like...imagine if no matter what someone was constantly playing this audiobook in your head and when you were in situations that were new to you they played it louder and when you tried to sleep they just blasted it to the point where you could barely sleep.
Yeah.
I'm pretty open about my mental health on here, but I don't really talk about my experie Okay, I understand all of the reviews talking about how this one was draining or exhausting or annoying this book and Paris's narration were but like...imagine if no matter what someone was constantly playing this audiobook in your head and when you were in situations that were new to you they played it louder and when you tried to sleep they just blasted it to the point where you could barely sleep.
Yeah.
I'm pretty open about my mental health on here, but I don't really talk about my experiences with anxiety and panic attacks a lot because honestly I usually just feel embarrassed by it? I was diagnosed with anxiety when I was in eighth grade and ever since then it has, with as little hyperbole as possible, made my life a living hell in almost all aspects (although the depression didn't help ). In an in-no-means comprehensive list, it has: made me miss or be late for so much school that it's a miracle I never got reported for truancy, ruined my shot at being in an Agatha Christie play by making me catastrophize the worst-case scenarios until I emailed and rescinded my audition, made me too paranoid to get any social media because what if everybody hates me and thinks I'm horrible or think I'm too tryhard or make fun of me, made me have a panic attack during a choir concert and then quit choir altogether a few years later, led to at least one full-on nervous breakdown, makes even the smallest surprise into something scary and in need of dissection, made me start panicking about if my loved ones were injured or dead if they didn't text me back within a few minutes of arriving somewhere, and made me so terrified of the future that whenever I think more ahead than like a month it all goes static. And the worst part is that I know that it's irrational, but knowing that changes nothing. In fact, sometimes it makes it worse.
This book is probably the best anxiety representation I've ever read.
I loved Paris and Tariq and the rest of the Bake Expectations crew (sans Catherine Parr and Gretchen) so much! I can't count the amount of times that I laughed or smiled while reading and I also can't count the amount of times that made me tear up a little with how much I related to them. I love the discussion Tariq has with Paris about not letting homophobia ruin his love for his religion and how present Tariq's faith is in the story. I loved the Hassans and their laser tag birthday battle and I loved the discussions around social media and online harassment and how mental illness is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for being a neglectful partner and oh my God I almost cried when Paris woke up Tariq by going to lock the window and then had to explain to him why since I've very much been there before.
My second Hall book of the year and probably my last because, you know, it's mid-December, but I'll definitely be reading a lot more of his work! ...more

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