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A review by jefferz
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
funny
lighthearted
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
4.5
I had read quite a few critically-written books lately and was in the mood for a more casual comfort read and had added Alexis Hall’s Boyfriend Material to my reading list last year during my post-Red White and Royal Blue movie watch (yes, I still have not read the book itself, working on fixing that soon). While Boyfriend Material is indeed comfortably casual at the surface, I was pleasantly surprised at how relatable and earnest it was. Beyond the expected laughs and genZ pop culture references, I found the story itself to be consistently-paced, well-executed, and quite solid all-around. I was skeptical (as I usually am for all top-rated books here) that it ranked so high on Goodreads’ best romance category in 2020, especially since queer romance novels are usually ranked much lower than heterosexual romance books, but I now understand and agree with the hype. Side note, although it has nothing to do with the book's content, I love the graphic design for the book's cover design that's simultaneously English-looking and also very classy and appealing. Beyond being British, I would be lying if I said the book's cover didn't have any influence over me choosing this to read (good job publisher branding).
Despite not liking most romance novel tropes, the fake dating trope is one I don’t mind as long as it's either done comically or critically well. Unexpectedly, Boyfriend Material takes a middle-road approach and excels at both. While I found the premise for the fake dating arrangement to be somewhat ridiculous initially (surely there's better ways to avoid getting fired than having a clean-cut boyfriend in the tabloids, but hey that's on-brand for Luc's character logic), the story overall just kept getting better and better once it got going. The first few chapters focusing exclusively on Luc come in hot, and by hot I mean “this guy is a hot mess.” Sensitive, defensive, emotionally volatile, one of the first thoughts that came to mind was “wow this book has great character work, so this is what all my crazy friends and ex partners go through internally on a daily basis, what a riot”. It took me a while to warm up to both Luc and the writing style which is quite on-brand for many recent contemporary romcom novels. Full of pop culture references, endless run-on sentences, purposefully made up words and questionable grammar, there’s a lot going on. These GenZ-appealing choices gradually become more balanced and strategically used (correlating with Luc’s character growth and maturity), but it wasn’t quite my taste.
Fortunately what helped carry me through the first half of the book was the chemistry and pairing between Luc and Oliver. This type of book lives and dies by its core couple, and fortunately I liked them a lot! Running with an “opposites somewhat attract” rather than a head over heels infatuation, their well-planned interactions was a relief to read. I had come off of a few other romance novels that have such instantly thirsty characters and implausible character growth that it had me facepalming. Initially a spiky and volatile mess common for his character trope, Luc’s growth and stumbles are handled in such an earnest manner that you really do end up rooting for him to succeed, despite his insecurities telling him to fail. Oliver on the other hand fits the responsible and logical trope, but Hall is able to surpass the typical role by delving into the psyche for why he acts the way he does. Both characters are more developed than the premise really needed them to be, which made me all the more impressed by the ambition (how obvious is it that I've bee repeatedly burned by romance novels?). There’s a great few chapters devoted to one of his friend’s birthday party Oliver invites Luc to as his plus one, only for Luc to notice that they’re all straight compared to his queer-dominated friend group.
“I think for me”—Oliver shifted slightly uncomfortably—“and I should stress I’m speaking entirely personally, I’ve never wholly identified with that particular way of signalling your identity. Which always makes me feel like I’m letting the side down a little bit.”
I found Hall’s approach to this topic in Boyfriend Material to be both interesting and different from many other similar queer romance novels. Maybe it's just what I’ve read so far, but it’s rare for me to see an openly gay male character grapple with not fitting in or feeling awkward in the greater LGBTQ+ community. Usually it’s a bi, closeted, or confused character (ie. Heartstopper, Sex Education, Red White and Royal Blue) that has these sentiments or those that came out later in life. Oliver’s character departs from both scenarios and it was quite refreshing to see that explored in a genre that tends to cater heavily towards the more out and proud parts of the community. This is all the more comedic when Luc’s mother asks Oliver if he’s ever “sissied that walk?” before while they’re marathoning RuPaul’s Drag Race. It's quite brief and not explored very deeply, but it was lovely to see these thoughts and feelings represented. Unrelated yet slightly related, the following quote made me laugh out loud, Oliver and my logical humor is one and the same:
“I’m fixating on the straight thing because…these people are important to you. And I don’t want to fuck this up.” -Luc
“The way I see it”—it was Oliver’s gravest voice so I braced myself for an onslaught of sincerity—“either you won’t, which will be nice. Or you will, which will be funny.”
Opposite attract pairings are pretty common and are often honestly contrived, but I found Luc and Oliver to really be great complements to each other. One of my personal nitpicks is when a romance novel has an emotionally volatile and disaster of a protagonist that somehow catches the interest of a responsibly straight-laced, mature partner. For most books aiming to be comfort reads, the bumbling MC charms the other character with their random antics who then falls head over heels for them. While great for an escapist read and comforting for readers that empathize with the character, I sometimes find it to not only be implausible based on the character’s logical personality, but also a bit lazy. Sure everyone would love for their perfect partner to see their disaster of a life and accept them for who they are, but that doesn’t really work in practice unless there's other charming aspects to the person (this is coming from someone who has a personality quite close to Oliver and is repelled by crazy people). Boyfriend Material avoids that issue partly through its well-utilized length (430 pages is on the longer side considering its simple premise), and also through Luc and Oliver’s many trials and tribulations. A lot of mistakes, errors, and miscommunication (a trope I normally hate I might add, gj Alexis Hall for making it work) made their growing relationship feel more complex and meaningful. Both characters also had quite a bit of character growth separately which also contributed to a more satisfying and rewarding ending.
Speaking of character growth and length, compared to similar romance books I’ve read (in particular, M/M queer romance novels), Boyfriend Material is definitely on the slower side. Hints of mutual feelings take a while to come up and the first real bedroom spice doesn’t happen until almost 75% into the book with a very slow build-up. While there's a lot of longingly awkward glances and references to sex, there's really only one spicy chapter included with other moments happening off-page, taking a classier approach. If you're picking this up primarily for man on man action, you're going to be disappointed. But its restrained approach helped elevate the material for me and took it from an easy typical romcom level read to a solid all-a rounder. I initially questioned why the book was so long considering it felt like there wasn’t a lot of “material” to work with (you know I had to lol), but I was repeatedly surprised by the quality of its seemingly mundane outings or Luc’s workplace follies that ultimately contributed to his personal growth. The book also tackles some non-Oliver/job related topics/themes like Luc’s feelings of abandonment by his famous rock star father, his low standards and self-value, and past romantic relationships (this one is quite underdevelopment however, perhaps it will be addressed in one of the two sequel novels). Meanwhile Oliver has themes of fitting into the expectation and image of others, an inadvertently toxic and homophobic family, and the excessive pressures he puts onto himself.
As a nice plus, Hall also has a nice mix of creatively inspiring quotes of self-reflection balanced out by equally creatively comedic one-liners (some of which are quite sharp which I always love):
“You really do own your illiteracy, don’t you?” -Oliver
“Yeah, I’m thinking about moving to America and running for public office.” -Luc
"My working theory was that getting a dessert from a vegan restaurant was like having sex with someone less attractive than you—they knew it was a tough sell, so they tried harder." -Luc</blockquote>
"For a second or two, I tried to do that British thing where you pretend nothing untoward is happening in the hope it’ll sort itself out quickly and amicably, and then you’ll never have to talk about it again…
And I desperately wanted to say something supportive but “don’t cry” was toxic bullshit, “it’s okay to cry” was patronizing, and “there, there” had never made anybody feel better ever in the history of emotions."
As a whole, I enjoyed and was pleasantly surprised by Boyfriend Material (and I do not mean this to be a backhanded compliment, despite how it looks). A true 4.5 rounded down, unfortunately the prose was just not to my personal taste and something I couldn’t overlook. But to Hall’s credit, it’s not just their specific writing but rather this style that has been popularized by many recent and trending contemporary fiction novels (this book knows who its readers are). However, the prose is really the only element that didn’t quite work for me (I'm decidedly not fruity enough I guess) and I’ve certainly rated many other books considerably lower based on their prose alone. And as previously mentioned, the prose does improve substantially in the back half of the book, further convincing me that it was a purposefully stylistic choice, not a default choice. While despite having a clean ending that allows Boyfriend material to be a standalone read if desired, there’s enough lingering plot threads and material to easily fill its one (soon to be two) sequel novels which I will more than likely also read. Good job Alexis Hall, this is approved Jeff Reading Material. (okay I will admit, that one was pretty bad)
Edit: Slept on it for a few days and decided to bump it up as it's closer to 5 stars vs 4 stars, feels a bit harsh to knock it down a star due to just the prose at times (Goodreads really needs to add half star ratings).
Despite not liking most romance novel tropes, the fake dating trope is one I don’t mind as long as it's either done comically or critically well. Unexpectedly, Boyfriend Material takes a middle-road approach and excels at both. While I found the premise for the fake dating arrangement to be somewhat ridiculous initially (surely there's better ways to avoid getting fired than having a clean-cut boyfriend in the tabloids, but hey that's on-brand for Luc's character logic), the story overall just kept getting better and better once it got going. The first few chapters focusing exclusively on Luc come in hot, and by hot I mean “this guy is a hot mess.” Sensitive, defensive, emotionally volatile, one of the first thoughts that came to mind was “wow this book has great character work, so this is what all my crazy friends and ex partners go through internally on a daily basis, what a riot”. It took me a while to warm up to both Luc and the writing style which is quite on-brand for many recent contemporary romcom novels. Full of pop culture references, endless run-on sentences, purposefully made up words and questionable grammar, there’s a lot going on. These GenZ-appealing choices gradually become more balanced and strategically used (correlating with Luc’s character growth and maturity), but it wasn’t quite my taste.
Fortunately what helped carry me through the first half of the book was the chemistry and pairing between Luc and Oliver. This type of book lives and dies by its core couple, and fortunately I liked them a lot! Running with an “opposites somewhat attract” rather than a head over heels infatuation, their well-planned interactions was a relief to read. I had come off of a few other romance novels that have such instantly thirsty characters and implausible character growth that it had me facepalming. Initially a spiky and volatile mess common for his character trope, Luc’s growth and stumbles are handled in such an earnest manner that you really do end up rooting for him to succeed, despite his insecurities telling him to fail. Oliver on the other hand fits the responsible and logical trope, but Hall is able to surpass the typical role by delving into the psyche for why he acts the way he does. Both characters are more developed than the premise really needed them to be, which made me all the more impressed by the ambition (how obvious is it that I've bee repeatedly burned by romance novels?). There’s a great few chapters devoted to one of his friend’s birthday party Oliver invites Luc to as his plus one, only for Luc to notice that they’re all straight compared to his queer-dominated friend group.
“I think for me”—Oliver shifted slightly uncomfortably—“and I should stress I’m speaking entirely personally, I’ve never wholly identified with that particular way of signalling your identity. Which always makes me feel like I’m letting the side down a little bit.”
I found Hall’s approach to this topic in Boyfriend Material to be both interesting and different from many other similar queer romance novels. Maybe it's just what I’ve read so far, but it’s rare for me to see an openly gay male character grapple with not fitting in or feeling awkward in the greater LGBTQ+ community. Usually it’s a bi, closeted, or confused character (ie. Heartstopper, Sex Education, Red White and Royal Blue) that has these sentiments or those that came out later in life. Oliver’s character departs from both scenarios and it was quite refreshing to see that explored in a genre that tends to cater heavily towards the more out and proud parts of the community. This is all the more comedic when Luc’s mother asks Oliver if he’s ever “sissied that walk?” before while they’re marathoning RuPaul’s Drag Race. It's quite brief and not explored very deeply, but it was lovely to see these thoughts and feelings represented. Unrelated yet slightly related, the following quote made me laugh out loud, Oliver and my logical humor is one and the same:
“I’m fixating on the straight thing because…these people are important to you. And I don’t want to fuck this up.” -Luc
“The way I see it”—it was Oliver’s gravest voice so I braced myself for an onslaught of sincerity—“either you won’t, which will be nice. Or you will, which will be funny.”
Opposite attract pairings are pretty common and are often honestly contrived, but I found Luc and Oliver to really be great complements to each other. One of my personal nitpicks is when a romance novel has an emotionally volatile and disaster of a protagonist that somehow catches the interest of a responsibly straight-laced, mature partner. For most books aiming to be comfort reads, the bumbling MC charms the other character with their random antics who then falls head over heels for them. While great for an escapist read and comforting for readers that empathize with the character, I sometimes find it to not only be implausible based on the character’s logical personality, but also a bit lazy. Sure everyone would love for their perfect partner to see their disaster of a life and accept them for who they are, but that doesn’t really work in practice unless there's other charming aspects to the person (this is coming from someone who has a personality quite close to Oliver and is repelled by crazy people). Boyfriend Material avoids that issue partly through its well-utilized length (430 pages is on the longer side considering its simple premise), and also through Luc and Oliver’s many trials and tribulations. A lot of mistakes, errors, and miscommunication (a trope I normally hate I might add, gj Alexis Hall for making it work) made their growing relationship feel more complex and meaningful. Both characters also had quite a bit of character growth separately which also contributed to a more satisfying and rewarding ending.
Speaking of character growth and length, compared to similar romance books I’ve read (in particular, M/M queer romance novels), Boyfriend Material is definitely on the slower side. Hints of mutual feelings take a while to come up and the first real bedroom spice doesn’t happen until almost 75% into the book with a very slow build-up. While there's a lot of longingly awkward glances and references to sex, there's really only one spicy chapter included with other moments happening off-page, taking a classier approach. If you're picking this up primarily for man on man action, you're going to be disappointed. But its restrained approach helped elevate the material for me and took it from an easy typical romcom level read to a solid all-a rounder. I initially questioned why the book was so long considering it felt like there wasn’t a lot of “material” to work with (you know I had to lol), but I was repeatedly surprised by the quality of its seemingly mundane outings or Luc’s workplace follies that ultimately contributed to his personal growth. The book also tackles some non-Oliver/job related topics/themes like Luc’s feelings of abandonment by his famous rock star father, his low standards and self-value, and past romantic relationships (this one is quite underdevelopment however, perhaps it will be addressed in one of the two sequel novels). Meanwhile Oliver has themes of fitting into the expectation and image of others, an inadvertently toxic and homophobic family, and the excessive pressures he puts onto himself.
As a nice plus, Hall also has a nice mix of creatively inspiring quotes of self-reflection balanced out by equally creatively comedic one-liners (some of which are quite sharp which I always love):
“You really do own your illiteracy, don’t you?” -Oliver
“Yeah, I’m thinking about moving to America and running for public office.” -Luc
"My working theory was that getting a dessert from a vegan restaurant was like having sex with someone less attractive than you—they knew it was a tough sell, so they tried harder." -Luc</blockquote>
"For a second or two, I tried to do that British thing where you pretend nothing untoward is happening in the hope it’ll sort itself out quickly and amicably, and then you’ll never have to talk about it again…
And I desperately wanted to say something supportive but “don’t cry” was toxic bullshit, “it’s okay to cry” was patronizing, and “there, there” had never made anybody feel better ever in the history of emotions."
As a whole, I enjoyed and was pleasantly surprised by Boyfriend Material (and I do not mean this to be a backhanded compliment, despite how it looks). A true 4.5 rounded down, unfortunately the prose was just not to my personal taste and something I couldn’t overlook. But to Hall’s credit, it’s not just their specific writing but rather this style that has been popularized by many recent and trending contemporary fiction novels (this book knows who its readers are). However, the prose is really the only element that didn’t quite work for me (I'm decidedly not fruity enough I guess) and I’ve certainly rated many other books considerably lower based on their prose alone. And as previously mentioned, the prose does improve substantially in the back half of the book, further convincing me that it was a purposefully stylistic choice, not a default choice. While despite having a clean ending that allows Boyfriend material to be a standalone read if desired, there’s enough lingering plot threads and material to easily fill its one (soon to be two) sequel novels which I will more than likely also read. Good job Alexis Hall, this is approved Jeff Reading Material. (okay I will admit, that one was pretty bad)
Edit: Slept on it for a few days and decided to bump it up as it's closer to 5 stars vs 4 stars, feels a bit harsh to knock it down a star due to just the prose at times (Goodreads really needs to add half star ratings).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content