Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Queerly Beloved

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Queerly Beloved, by Susie Dumond

4 reviews

rsk1315's review

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emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No

2.5

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tlrjhnlwsn's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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kat468's review

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emotional lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

1.0

The short review: I’m bored. I’m so bored and I don’t care, and I didn’t like the message, and also, I’m bored.

The longer review, broken down into the biggest issues I had with the book:

The messaging: I’m happy the MC (Amy) figured out how to be authentically herself at work, in a way that benefited her business and helped her feel better about herself, but the journey to get there was a bit sanctimonious and pressure-y. The MC spends a lot of page space on internal monologues explaining that she’s not being authentic/honest/“faithful to the queer community” by not being out at work or super loud and proud with her (homophobic) extended family. The resulting narrative implied that it’s imperative for queer people to be out, and that they’re doing something wrong if they aren’t. Sure, there was some caveats for not outing yourself in unsafe situations, but other than that, the book seemed pretty adamant that queer people should be OUT. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge advocate for queer representation, think people should be able to be out, and celebrate when people do come out — but coming out is never something queer people owe others (not straight people, and not even other queer people). If you believe coming out isn’t an obligation, but a choice, this book will likely rub you the wrong way.

The romance: The relationship happened very off-page — readers don’t actually get to read many interactions between the MC and the LI (Charley). Plus, the LI traveled a lot which almost seemed to be a very convenient way to not write as much of them together. When they were together, there was NO chemistry. I thought the LI was a very flat, boring character; I can’t tell you a single thing about her likes and dislikes, outside of her job. Honestly, one of the brides the MC works for/befriends (Regi) is a more developed character than the LI. I wasn’t invested enough in the relationship, so when they had their big moment in the end, it felt very rushed and unnatural and insta-lovey. There wasn’t the foundation to justify the ease with which they made up, or how far they jumped in the relationship (spoiler:

Spoiler

jumping from not even defining the relationship before the break up, to exchanging “I love you” after the makeup

The writing: The author is definitely a “teller” not a “shower”. There were SO MANY PARTS where the author gave a couple sentence (or even couple paragraph) summary of a scene instead of writing it out — sometimes even writing a sentence summarizing one sentence of dialogue in a conversation, rather than writing out the dialogue. As a result, I felt really detached from the ongoings in the book and wasn’t emotionally invested. Also, I skimmed. A lot.

The “drama”: At 60% of the way through this book, there was basically no drama happening. Early on (like page 40) she gets fired from her job, and then pretty quickly starts the bridesmaid business. And then there’s approximately 200 pages of her just building the business and living her life. It was not an interesting 200 pages. And then, kind of out of the blue, a bunch of things go wrong — her best friend gets mad at her (for reasons I didn’t feel the previous 200 pages supported) and the relationship with the LI implodes. Plus, the whole time, the MC is whining to the reader about feeling like she’s lying to brides because she’s not coming out to them, and worried that she’s a people pleaser because she’s doing whatever she can to make the brides happy (…even though that’s literally what they’re paying her for: to make their events go smoothly and help them be happy).

Queer rep: lesbian MC, sapphic main pairing, background mlm relationships & gay men, background non-binary character, background other lesbian & gay characters

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dogbuttsandbooks's review

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-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

2.5

I’m always on the lookout for more contemporary sapphic romances, especially set in the southern United States, so I was VERY excited to get my hands on an arc of Queerly Beloved. And that’s where the excitement ended. This book had great story concepts, but needed some serious editing - there were so many different storylines. Is it about someone hiding their queer identity at work? Or a professional bridesmaid? Or a sapphic romance? Or a coming of age story? It was trying to do too much and ended up succeeding at none of it. The side characters were all severely underdeveloped and seemed to rely on queer stereotypes. Also this should not be marketed as a romance, it’s barely a part of the storyline and has the most forced HEA of all time. 

So many content warnings for homophobia. 

Last thing - while I love the frequent use of pronouns in the book, that would not have been normal in 2013.

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