Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - The Rest of the Story

This book, uhhhh, hmm.

Can a book be a shit sandwich, but the bread is the shit part? Because the beginning of this book is rough (expected to be rough, tho!) and the middle is ooey gooey sweet sappiness, and then, the shit returns (supposed I should have expected it . . . if you subscribe to Chekov's gun but replace gun with "abusive asshole").

There is a lot to like here, but it is bookended by some very traumatic stuff, and the stuff at the end of the book actually affected me a lot more, and I think that the note that 'this book deals with themes of survivorship' possibly isn't sufficient to cover what this book contains. I would recommend this with extreme caution.

May 2024 re-read: Note to self - DO NOT to be influenced to revisit this book again. It is too overblown for my tastes. I'm not changing my rating, but . . . yeah.

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nerdofalltrades's review

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I went into this book not really knowing what I was getting into, and it ripped my heart out in the most eloquent of ways. I couldn't recommend this more, but definitely check the content warnings as things can be pretty dark.

Content Warnings

downtown_kb's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Morgan “Moogs” Elsher has been playing in the NHL since he was 18. He’s not bad but he’s not great and he might just be facing some of his final years. He gets traded to the worst team in the league and when he shows up to practice, planning on just retiring, he discovers there might be a very dark and sinister reason this team is so bad. And maybe he can turn the whole thing around.

I might have liked this one more than Gravity? I love an underdog story (not just the team but also Moogs) but mostly, damn if I didn’t fall in love with daddy Moogs! I loved being in his head. He was a chill fun loving guy, a bit of a himbo, but he had a giant heart of gold he had buried away and you got to find it with him. And he loved so, so, big.

This was over the top sweet, a whole lot of heart, and capital PINING. Not much of an actual age gap here but it felt like one because Shea just seemed young, sweet and innocent, and Moogs seemed older with how he was the team dad. The external 3rd act conflict here was a lot to take in. It was heavy and it really caused a sharp pivot in the story and changed the tone a lot. I think Brody's story needed more room but also, Moogs and Shea would have been front and center for him so it couldn't have been ignored either. It was interesting to see that T.B. didn’t do a lot of hurt/comfort like he did with Gravity, instead there was a bigger scope of caretaking with the whole team and Moogs. After I thought about it for a while, I don’t think I would have liked it if everything had just coasted to an easy finish either. So yeah, I still give this 5 stars. I savored this book, the pining was so good, and Moogs is going to be one of my all time favorite characters.

Content Warnings