Scan barcode
A review by levitatingnumeral
Trauma Alert by Radclyffe
2.0
I wish I'd liked this book. I'm all for multi-layered strong women engaging in relationships and character development happening along the way, but Trauma Alert was... Kind of disappointing. And I can't tell for sure why, especially considering I kept thinking about it as Grey's Anatomy with more firefighters, but I can definitely pinpoint some things that bothered me.
Firstly, the characters motives didn't convince me. Though I understand why they were holding back, it seemed shallow, their actions were incoherent and the drama was so... Internal? Easy to solve? But then I can think about situations where characters were holding back for reasons entirely pertaining to their psyche and I still liked the story, empathised with it, even.
It was also predictable. I knew they were going to end up together, I knew when a situation would lead to tension and what the outcome would be; there seemed to be no novelty and at no point was there any need to reflect on the situation, because everything was in plain sight.
Finally, I didn't empathise with the relationship either, as it seemed shallow and all about sex. Fine, they were attracted and captivated by each other, I can understand that instinctive feeling of wanting to know more about someone and/or get close (be it physically or emotionally) to them. Alright, they had a lot of chemistry, couldn't get their hands off each other and had great sex. But... Why did they love each other? What fascinated them? Relationships are built on much than just telling some fun facts about your past and having sex, as far as I'm concerned, so where's the connection? Why did they connect? Why did their personalities click? What reason did they have to stay beyond the initial attraction?
Some other more punctual issues also bothered me, such as Beau acting like "one of the guys" and the sexism that entailed, or sex while one of the people is asleep and unable to consent. Also, the ending, God, that was painful to read,
I'm not even going to say the story was unrealistic because it's recently come to my attention that this sort of thing happens for some people, but I just wish I could read a story that went beyond this romantic/sexual cliché. I seek a story that revolves around connection and not simply drama that stands for itself, so that I can truly empathise.
Firstly, the characters motives didn't convince me. Though I understand why they were holding back, it seemed shallow, their actions were incoherent and the drama was so... Internal? Easy to solve? But then I can think about situations where characters were holding back for reasons entirely pertaining to their psyche and I still liked the story, empathised with it, even.
It was also predictable. I knew they were going to end up together, I knew when a situation would lead to tension and what the outcome would be; there seemed to be no novelty and at no point was there any need to reflect on the situation, because everything was in plain sight.
Finally, I didn't empathise with the relationship either, as it seemed shallow and all about sex. Fine, they were attracted and captivated by each other, I can understand that instinctive feeling of wanting to know more about someone and/or get close (be it physically or emotionally) to them. Alright, they had a lot of chemistry, couldn't get their hands off each other and had great sex. But... Why did they love each other? What fascinated them? Relationships are built on much than just telling some fun facts about your past and having sex, as far as I'm concerned, so where's the connection? Why did they connect? Why did their personalities click? What reason did they have to stay beyond the initial attraction?
Some other more punctual issues also bothered me, such as Beau acting like "one of the guys" and the sexism that entailed, or sex while one of the people is asleep and unable to consent. Also, the ending, God, that was painful to read,
Spoiler
as they would only talk about how they loved each other and belonged to the other, yadda yadda yadda. Spare me the cheesy moments, please. Talk about something else, be interesting! Make your relationship about more than sex and the emotional turmoil that you two have created for yourselves.I'm not even going to say the story was unrealistic because it's recently come to my attention that this sort of thing happens for some people, but I just wish I could read a story that went beyond this romantic/sexual cliché. I seek a story that revolves around connection and not simply drama that stands for itself, so that I can truly empathise.