Reviews with content warning for Biphobia - Him

Reviews tagging 'Biphobia'

Him by Elle Kennedy, Sarina Bowen

15 reviews

frantic_vampire's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

I’ve fallen in love with yet another lgbtq+ hockey series and I’m not mad about it. I loved Jamie and Wes together. They were funny and sweet and still managed to be total sports dude-bros (in a good way😂).

One of the things that I absolutely loved about this book was the care that the authors took with Jamie figuring out his sexuality. We got to see him questioning what he thought he knew about himself and doing researching and finding a label that works for him. It was really nice, and it was refreshing to see someone going through that process. I feel like that piece is often left out of books were someone is figuring out they aren’t as straight as they thought they were. I also really appreciated Jamie’s family support structure. I loved that the only objection they had to Wes was the football team he was a fan of.

And I can’t forget about Wes! He was just the sweetest, angsty-est, goofball. I loved that he had this golden retriever energy about him and was willing to do literally anything for Jamie.

I think my only objections about this book were some of the wording/phrasing choices. Sometimes they took me out of the story, but otherwise I loved this book so much! I’m giving Him four stars and I can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on the next one.

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kaitlyng's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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kermittttt's review

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hopeful fast-paced

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

2.0

the biphobia is so wild in this like what also i didn’t care about these characters at all until the last 20 pages. hoping the next book is better!

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parasolcrafter's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.5

this book was definitely...fine. its nothing groundbreaking, its nothing spectacular, but its not horrible either. its just...a fine book. i didnt know it would be so sex-heavy when i got into it so it was a little jarring - it really does turn out to be more porn that substance near the halfway mark - which is fine, i just wish everything else would have been developed more. like there should have been more tension and angst before there was any relationship development, but for what this book is, its okay. i guess the other books in the series can go more into depth on the two characters, but i dont have much hope bc this book was quite shallow :/

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violetsto_'s review against another edition

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.0

is this book very problematic? absolutely. did i ignore the parts i didn't like and have a great time? absolutely!!!

likes:
- wes having a tongue piercing was much more intriguing than i thought it'd be. i'm ... gonna leave it at that. (the tattoos sound so ugly tho, which seems accurate for wes)
- they have some cute friendship moments
- yeah idk most of the good parts were horny, since their friendship didn't have much depth beyond like pranks and talking shit?

dislikes:
- jamie really said being from california is a personality (which felt like a personal attack ngl)
- both wes and jamie are hypermasculine sports bro talking about tits and dicks and the single woman character is meaningless to the story except to be jealous of, so ...
- this book does not handle it's bi mc with care ... wes tries to "call him out" for liking women? like yeah, that's what bi is, bud. (some of wes' biphobic comments could be more sympathetically seen as wes being insecure rather than issue with jamie's sexuality, but this one is ... especially bad)

steam:
- it was a steamy summer camp romp!
- jamie's ... steamy scene dialogue was a particular highlight

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katiem716's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

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jdf1027's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

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

3.5

Honestly, this was way better than I thought it was going to be.

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uh_haley's review against another edition

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4.0

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nisha_nee's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

For such a highly-rated and well-loved book, I'm a bit disappointed--scratch that, not just a bit but fully disappointed. I'm writing this review ten days after I've read this book and not one scene came to mind. My mind was just blank because the characters were so forgettable. I may have liked Jamie better than Ryan because he was less annoying and was more proactive in terms of figuring things about himself and mending their relationship. But what I really didn't like was the final conflict and that's where Ryan totally ruined his character for me. And as for the LGBTQ+ representation, there are a lot of better M/M and LGBTQ+ books out there with better plot and well-rounded characters. This book, while trying to represent a queer relationship detailing out some of the couples' experiences with homophobia which I understand, have biphobic undertones in the writing and thinking of the characters themselves. This was what brought down the star rating for me, for reasons I won't say because spoiler, duh. Ryan Wesley does so very jerky, rude, rascal move and he got off from all the emotional and mental consequences he brought on to Jamie, scot-free. No groveling. No hard effort. Nothing. AND I CAN'T ABIDE BY THAT !!!

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anjae's review against another edition

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

Ugh, I loved it. Not much in the way of plot or much else other than gooey pining, excellent chemistry, and silent (and then vocalized) love confessions. It was a perfect, short and sweet read.

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