This is a great example of trusting an author you know you enjoy even when the concept doesn’t initially grab your attention. I’m on Janine Amesta’s advanced reader list having loved Love at First Flight and The Wedding Con (The Love Feud is currently sitting on my end table waiting for me). Initially the description of Shrunkation didn’t grab me, but I know I like Amesta’s way of building characters and I’m always a least a little intrigued by a marriage in trouble romance, so I went in hoping for the best.
What I think Amesta nailed here is that a story can be funny as well as poignant. You can dig into the depths of communication issues and trust and all the things that are crucial in keeping a long-term relationship healthy, while also leaning into the absurd. Because there are few things more absurd than having to navigate the world being an inch tall and being attacked by seagulls. But that (and so many other moments of action craziness) are balanced against Trey and Catalina having to work through what caused the rift in their marriage, and if it can be healed. Shrunkation is also having a very real conversation about carrying emotional labor and what caring for – actually taking care of – someone looks like. It also is looking at the ways in which our old traumas can keep us from being able to trust a change when it is happening.
Amesta also throws in a third POV of Sasha who works for the evil tech billionaire whose company is responsible for Trey and Cat being shrunk down in the first place, which I felt was a great way to handle some of the overarching world-building of the book.
I received an ARC of this book from the author; it has not affected the contents of the review, only its timing. Shrunkation is available now.
