A review by lithoerary_atria
Game Changer by Rachel Reid
1.0
honestly? if you're closeted just don't read this book? for the sake of your mental health if not for anything else :)
the first half of the book, as evident from the updates on my progress bar, were so cute & good. i thought i was gonna give this a 4 star!! but then, the goddamned miscommunication trope was introduced which made me lose my patience a little.
but it was still fine. until kip starts on a whole tangent about how scott being closeted is because of how much he is embarrassed to be with him or to be gay. without giving a second thought to the fact that the closet exists for a reason!!!
like idk man, take this from someone who is closeted and will probably be closeted for their whole life, but portraying the people who are in the closet so negatively is so fucking bad. i went in to read a romance & have a good time, not to feel invalidated & hurt. i was literally on the verge of tears by how kip, kyle (that bartender dude) & others talked about closeted people.
this paired with how kip almost manipulated & guilt-tripped scott into coming out made it worse. like sexuality & coming out are VERY personal things and noone, NOONE should be pressurized into it. especially given that scott's concerns about homophobia in men's sports was valid. like i don't know how to say this but it was NOT scott's responsibility to choose coming out over his safety.
this could've been avoided if scott was the one who had the arc of wanting to be out. it would've been empowering to see him taking the narrative in his own hands & kip supporting him. instead, this book made scott apologise (???) for being in the closet. i understand that kip's concerns were valid but their entire resolution was stupid & it was so poorly executed and it made the story so bad i just-
don't- don't read this. for your own sanity ugh
the first half of the book, as evident from the updates on my progress bar, were so cute & good. i thought i was gonna give this a 4 star!! but then, the goddamned miscommunication trope was introduced which made me lose my patience a little.
but it was still fine. until kip starts on a whole tangent about how scott being closeted is because of how much he is embarrassed to be with him or to be gay. without giving a second thought to the fact that the closet exists for a reason!!!
like idk man, take this from someone who is closeted and will probably be closeted for their whole life, but portraying the people who are in the closet so negatively is so fucking bad. i went in to read a romance & have a good time, not to feel invalidated & hurt. i was literally on the verge of tears by how kip, kyle (that bartender dude) & others talked about closeted people.
this paired with how kip almost manipulated & guilt-tripped scott into coming out made it worse. like sexuality & coming out are VERY personal things and noone, NOONE should be pressurized into it. especially given that scott's concerns about homophobia in men's sports was valid. like i don't know how to say this but it was NOT scott's responsibility to choose coming out over his safety.
this could've been avoided if scott was the one who had the arc of wanting to be out. it would've been empowering to see him taking the narrative in his own hands & kip supporting him. instead, this book made scott apologise (???) for being in the closet. i understand that kip's concerns were valid but their entire resolution was stupid & it was so poorly executed and it made the story so bad i just-
don't- don't read this. for your own sanity ugh
Content Warnings
Graphic: Outing