ARC Review: Artifacts of an Ex by Jennifer Chen

 

When Chloe Chang gets dumped via USPS after moving across the county from NYC to LA, her first instinct is to throw her box of memories in the garbage. Instead, she starts buying other teenagers’ break-up boxes to create an art exhibit, Heartifacts. Opening night is going great, until she spots Daniel Kwak illicitly filming his best friend’s reaction to his ex’s box. When she tries to stop him, an intense discussion ends up launching a creative partnership and friendship… and a major crush for Chloe.

There’s just one problem: Daniel is dead set on not being another rebound.

Five times he’s been the guy who makes the girls he’s dating realize they want to get back with their ex. And he refuses for there to be a sixth. She insists she’s over her ex, but when he shows up unexpectedly with his new girlfriend, it turns out Daniel was right. She isn’t ready for a new relationship.

She throws herself into making Heartifacts successful, but flashy influencers threaten her original vision of the exhibit. To create the exhibit she’s always wanted, Chloe needs to go back to basics, learn to work with artists in a more collaborative way, and discover what love can be. Only then will she convince Daniel she’s truly ready for everything they could be to one another.

In the tradition of Jenny Han and Emma Lord, Jennifer Chen’s Artifacts of an Ex is a story of love, art, and finding your way when everything you know has changed completely.

Title: Artifacts of an Ex

Author: Jennifer Chen

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Expected Publication Date: 11/7/2023

Review:

I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with a copy of this egalley to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Chloe Chang has had a hard and sudden breakup. In her misery, she designs an art exhibit to showcase heartbreak after breakups. Little does she know this will lead her  to new friendships and even to love again.

Let's start by saying this book is very YA, maybe even more middle grade, though the characters are in high school. The character arcs are predictable and, to be honest, a bit cringy. The main character, Chloe, is very childish. And her penchant for falling for the MMC, Daniel, was too insta-love for me. I really have nothing beyond this for who she is. Well, this and her making dumb decisions. The entire book focuses on what seems to me is her obsession with Daniel. Speaking of Daniel, who even is he? His development is just not there. I know he is a film maker, and that's about it. All the teen characters truly seemed way to immature to me. To be honest, my favorite character in the book was Chloe's grandmother, and she's not even a main character. Otherwise I had zero connection to the characters; zero empathy for their story arcs.

I would have liked to see a bit more of the culture in this book. We saw some food items mentioned and made. Some language being spoken. But, other than that, I didn't feel like I learned anything about who Chloe and her family are and how that might effect them. I have to assume the writer chose this specific culture because she has a connection to it but that just did not come through in the writing or the plot.

I found the plot way too predictable. I feel like a dual POV would have worked better for this book. This may have endeared me better to the MMC who just seemed to be there for the need to have a romantic interest. The pacing was slow for me and I truly had to push through to see what happened at the end. Of course we knew where it would go, pretty much from the beginning, which would be fine had the story progression really swept me off my feet.

I definitely feel this should be marked to a younger audience rather than teens as it just does not have that teen draw for me.

Author:

Jennifer Chen is a freelance journalist who has written for print and online, including pieces in the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, and Bust. She earned an MFA and BFA in dramatic writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and is a proud alumnae of Hedgebrook, a women’s writing residency. Jennifer is represented by literary agent Caitie Flum at Liza Dawson Associates. She lives in Los Angeles with her TV writer husband, twins, two pugs, and a smoky black cat named Gremlin.