Alternatives to monogamy are becoming much more visible, leading more people to consider the idea of having multiple partners. But as any modern dater knows, relationships of any kind are rarely simple. Haili Blassingame’s debut novel, They All Fall in Love at the End, shows us a main character who upends her life for the potential freedom of breaking the monogamous mold.
In the fall of 2024, with a presidential election on the horizon, 24-year-old Cat is struggling with her heart. She’s in a long-distance relationship with the gentle and seemingly perfect Jay, which they have decided to open, giving them freedom to sleep with other people, but this decision has brought more stress and tribulations than pleasure. Mainly, their strife comes from the fact that Jay was reluctant to try an open relationship, and he voiced these uncertain feelings to his childhood best friend, Tristan. This puts tension between Cat and Tristan, who has recently moved to D.C., where Cat lives—but it turns out to be a tension that draws them toward each other. When Cat meets Tristan’s girlfriend, Nia, a painter and the great-niece to a famous writer, she feels an attraction to her as well, and an unexpected, entrancing dynamic emerges among the three of them.
Cat is at work on a novel, and scenes of her workshops for her MFA at American University provide the book with the means to comment on itself. This, however, is one instance where the novel trips itself up, falling into meta moments that feel self-conscious. Cat’s classmates call her protagonist (who she acknowledges is a stand-in for herself) pathetic and question her motives, which she shrugs off with outward insouciance and inward bitterness. Though offering a realistic portrait of a writer, these workshop scenes often flatten Cat, revealing her inability to seriously reflect or change.
The slow-burn love square provides soapy entertainment, as the tension among the characters crackles into a roaring, uncontrollable fire. However, though They All Fall in Love at the End attempts to dive into the question of how to survive and thrive in the bleak landscape of contemporary romance, the answers it provides are sadly bleak as well. With the depiction of the 2024 presidential election (wherein Blassingame refuses to name the elected president), Blassingame succeeds in portraying the lack of hope that plagues our times and how this dearth affects us not just socially but also intimately. While this might not make for the most fun read, it is certainly an achievement in seeking the zeitgeist.