endemictoearth's review
challenging
dark
sad
0.5
What the actual fuck. I had already started this by the time I saw ‘Nathan Burgoine’s review. I should’ve dnfed, but it was long past the return window to get my dollar back from AMZ, and I was a little curious how much farther it was going to go off the rails. Well, his review didn’t even really prepare me for some of the more horrific parts of this book.
The bully romance part is not well done, but compared to it pales in comparison. This SO read to me as a white privileged woman inventing the most terrible shit she could put two characters through, for funsies. For the ANGST of it all. “Ooh, I know! I’ll have one character’s well-educated surgeon father spew homophobic slurs at his son and threaten to disown him, causing his mother to leave and take all their children away, which leaves the son feeling guilty for tearing his family apart! Let’s give the other MC a heroin-addicted stripper mom who neglects both her children and has an abusive (Latinx, ofc) boyfriend who puts her daughter in danger! And let’s give him a best friend with RAGE issues who is working for crime syndicate! And let’s give the first MC a life threatening perforated ulcer from stress about coming out to his father, which puts him in the hospital! Misery all ‘round!”
And, on top of that, there was so little evidence for their attraction to one another. It was all just InstaLust in their heads, each thinking, “He’s such a dick, but like, such a HOT dick.” Or the bully: “I hate this kid for Reasons(tm), and I’ve never been attracted to dudes, but damn he's pretty.” Just over and over . . .
The MOST terrible stuff I mentioned doesn’t happen until almost the end, or I would have thrown my phone across the room. NOPE
The bully romance part is not well done, but compared to
Spoiler
the sexual assault of a minor (it’s really written as an attempted gang rape of a 13 year old girl) and the subsequent MURDER of four peopleAnd, on top of that, there was so little evidence for their attraction to one another. It was all just InstaLust in their heads, each thinking, “He’s such a dick, but like, such a HOT dick.” Or the bully: “I hate this kid for Reasons(tm), and I’ve never been attracted to dudes, but damn he's pretty.” Just over and over . . .
The MOST terrible stuff I mentioned doesn’t happen until almost the end, or I would have thrown my phone across the room. NOPE
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Homophobia, Gun violence, Eating disorder, and Murder
I put moderate for all the warnings bc the author doesn't go into graphic descriptions of most of the horrible stuff. It just sort of . . . happens. It's still horrible, tho.
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