Nineteen-year-old Aaron Stein lives with his father, Ira, and works in their used bookstore.

When a shelf suddenly collapses, it triggers a domino effect: They can’t afford a replacement, and Aaron discovers they’re in dire financial straits and that his father’s been relying on credit cards to cover expenses. Aaron has been struggling since his older brother’s overdose death and his mother’s subsequent departure. His brother’s years of addiction and final hospitalization wiped the family out; transferring the bookstore’s ownership to Aaron was supposed to offer a clean slate. Aaron can’t bring himself to tell his father that he’s sold the shop to a local business owner. Then party bro Chad, an old friend of his brother’s who uses a wheelchair, shows up in their small town in the Cascade Mountains of Washington state and insists on helping build an accessibility ramp for the store. Soon more townspeople appear, eager to help renovate. Aaron tries to renege on the sale, but the buyer demands $13,000, delivered in two weeks. While he’s running out of time, he’s drawn to a charismatic girl, the perfect distraction. As the community brings the store back to life, Aaron flees until he realizes he can’t hide any longer. Aaron’s reckoning with grief is slow-burning and real, and the cycle of addiction is rendered with care and precision. Most characters are assumed White.

A love letter to bookstores and a deftly drawn portrait of the ripples of addiction. (Fiction. 14-18)

I picked this one up because of its setting, a down and out used bookstore.
There were multiple mentions of an apocalyptic event occurring, and at first I believe that this was going to be a dystopian novel set in a bookstore. But no, the apocalyptic event turns out to be of a personal nature.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Sunil Malhotra, does all of the diverse voices of all genders fabulously.
I found that I the side characters in the story resonated much more with me that the main character, Aaron Stein. The side characters are people you would want to be your friends, be part of your town.

There are lots of references to books in this novel, perfect for book lovers.
The titles of each chapter harken back to a book, with the chapter itself tangentially related to that book. I found this fun/intriguing, trying to guess how the book chapter title was going to bloom into the narration. ( )

We are Inevitable had an inevitability to it that I dreaded or anxiously awaited as the end drew near.

Aaron feels the end of the family's business is inevitable, like the dinosaurs. The meteor has already hit, the book store he has grown up in, is gasping for air and it's inevitable that they'll need to close. After finding bills showing that his dad owes more money even after bankruptcy, Aaron decided to face the inevitable NOW. He agrees to sell the business. Of course, life can laugh at your plans and show you that inevitable doesn't mean what you think it means.

When Aaron runs into one of his brother's old friends, Chad, the meteor begins accelerating. Chad unexpectedly visits the bookstore and determines a ramp is necessary for disabled access, as Chad is in a wheelchair. Chad has a lot of reasons to feel sorry for himself and give up on life (as Aaron seems to feel), yet he remains pretty upbeat. He has plans and a future in business to look forward to. He hijacks Aaron's life and even connects with Ira, Aaron's dad. He has ideas to help the bookstore beyond just a ramp, like maybe an inventory. At the same time Ike, Richie, and Garry enter into the life of the bookstore. They decide to fix some things: bookshelf, wall, etc. Aaron knows all of this help is wasted because the store is already sold. He just can't seem to tell anyone. All of these meteors are destroying his current existence, the inevitability of failure.

The last meteor is Hannah. She seems to possess answers and a sense of acceptance of herself and others. She's a musician in the band Chad likes and has introduced Aaron to. Aaron determines they, as a couple, are inevitable. Just like Aaron's parents, who KNEW they were inevitable, so Aaron feels that he and Hannah are inevitable. As Aaron's world tilts and wobbles from these asteroids, Aaron finds that sometimes people are good--sometimes good things can happen--sometimes there is hope.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel. I found the concept of inevitability interesting. How do you know what is inevitable? Everything Aaron did was based on the inevitability of failure yet he fails to envision what does happen. Is what actually happens inevitable? I got irritated quite a few times because Aaron could be so stubborn, which lead to so much blindness toward other characters. I liked the ending for the most part. Afterall, it's inevitable that change or moving on is part of life. ( )

After a tragic event, Aaron and his father are left trying to keep their independent bookstore, Bluebird Books, afloat as the bills mount. This one is an absolute love letter to bookstores. It’s not a teen romance as the cover implies. It’s a story about grief, loss, and the anger that can mingle with those feelings. It’s about community and the vulnerability that it takes to depend upon others. It’s about healing and hope through the eyes of a broken young man. All of that is mixed together with humor and a passion for books and music.

I loved the character of Ira, Aaron's father. Their relationship reminded me a bit of the father and son in The Shadow of the Wind. I felt like each of the supporting characters, Chad, the Lumberjacks, Hannah, etc. had a depth and felt real. Hannah starts off looking like another manic pixie dream girl, but quickly becomes a person with her own issues that have nothing to do with Aaron. I loved the use of book names as the chapter titles.

“I continue reading, remembering why I used to love books. Because they show us, in so many words, and so many worlds, that we are not alone. A miracle, in twenty-six letters.”

“You’re the most unreliable narrator I’ve ever met.” ( )

Aaron Stein is the owner of Bluebird Books, an independent bookstore with too much debt and not enough foot traffic. Aaron's dad, Ira, and his mom, Annie, used to run the bookstore, but Aaron's mom left after his older brother, Sandy, died due to a drug overdose. When Aaron finds out that his dad has run up even more debt on credit cards, he sees no other option but to sell the store to local business owner Penny Macklemore, whose personal bible is The Art of the Deal. Yet before Aaron can break the news to his dad, an old high school classmate, Chad, shows up in his wheelchair and has the idea to build a ramp. A couple of former mill workers criticize their plywood efforts and decide to build a better one. And while they're at it, maybe paint. And fix a broken shelf. And maybe replace the floor. And wouldn't it be great if there was a cafe in the bookstore?

Aaron finds it impossible to tell his dad - and the others - that the store's days are numbered. Meanwhile, Chad keeps dragging him to Beethoven's Anvil concerts, and Aaron meets Hannah and falls in love - then finds out she's a recovering addict.

Throughout the story, Aaron slowly learns from Chad, Hannah, and his mother to reevaluate his judgments, preconceptions, and opinions of other people - and himself.

Easter egg for those who read If I Stay and Where She Went: unnamed cameo of Mia and Adam on p. 264 ("I think that's the guy who used to be in Shooting Star.") Back matter includes a bibliography of all books mentioned or alluded to, an addiction note, and acknowledgments.

See also: Dress Coded by Carrie Firestone (Molly's older brother is/was a drug addict)

Quotes

"You're an unreliable narrator, you know that? ...It's when the person telling you the story is maybe not telling you the entire truth. Sometimes it's because they can't see it themselves. But other times it's because they are trying to deceive you." (Aaron to Chad, 55)

"Music and books are not distant cousins. They're more like fraternal twins. Different ways of telling a story." (Hannah to Aaron, 90)

It's not a memory. It's more powerful than that. It's as close as you can get to a time machine. (Aaron re: sense of smell, 104)

"Aren't promises, like, null and void when someone dies?"
"Not this one." (Chad and Aaron re: Sandy's record collection, 153)

It's not that I'm excited to have this conversation with Hannah but recent experience has shown the more I put something off, the more impossible it becomes. (183)

...thought about places to live where the sky does not constantly cry. (220)

"You are the most unreliable narrator I've ever met." (Hannah to Aaron, 230)

"But when you've been through what we have, you start to understand that happy doesn't always look like it used to. Family doesn't always look like it used to. But it's still family." (Mom to Aaron, 237)

"But I never meant for this to happen. Things, they just, I don't know, spun out of control."
"I imagine your brother felt the same way." (239)

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear....[Books] show us, in so many words, and so many worlds, that we are not alone. (242)

"Are all the answers to life's questions in books?"
"Of course. That's what makes them miracles." (Aaron and Ira, 246)

From the Acknowledgments:
Writing outside your own experience is both a necessity of fiction and an act of humility... ( )