WE ARE INEVITABLE

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.