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A review by jbellomy
The Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough
Did not finish book.
DNF @24%
NOOOOPE I'm done with this. Henry is clearly framed as cute but I vehemently object because, no, actually, he's an obsessive stalker. He goes to her jazz club every night for months (MONTHS!) to stare at her. He TALKS IN HIS SLEEP ABOUT HER and he hasn't even spoken to her. The only piece of actual characterization we're given about him is that he's been searching for his one true love all his life and then he sees Flora and this happens. Classic ~Nice Guy~ "I'm just a romantic" bs. This is not charming, sensitive soft boi behavior. This is messed up and terrifying, and I'm so so tired of these types of narratives being played as (or, in cases like 500 Days of Summer, played straightly enough so as to be interpreted as) a positive. I can't even root for her to reject him because then she'll *die*!!!
Also, you're going to feature Charles Lindberg prominently in a book with a black protagonist and have her IDOLIZE him?? That man was a flaming racist. As in full Nazi vibes. Not a good look. (I'm really hoping that gets dealt with by the end but I have a feeling it won't.)
Also, it was boring. Nothing happened. The whole "Cosmic Game of Love" has been proven to work (see: The Night Circus, the play Once on This Island) but the execution here is too vague to be actually intriguing.
Three aspects kept me going:
1. Flora. She seems cool. Too bad she's gotten literally nothing to do by a quarter of the way in.
2. A lot of the prose is nice.
3. Ethan, who is a bit of a little shit, is clearly in love with Henry and I wanted to see how this played out.
But that's not enough anymore. The sleep talking thing really got me. I'm outta here (like Flora should've been when Annabelle let that detail slip).
NOOOOPE I'm done with this. Henry is clearly framed as cute but I vehemently object because, no, actually, he's an obsessive stalker. He goes to her jazz club every night for months (MONTHS!) to stare at her. He TALKS IN HIS SLEEP ABOUT HER and he hasn't even spoken to her. The only piece of actual characterization we're given about him is that he's been searching for his one true love all his life and then he sees Flora and this happens. Classic ~Nice Guy~ "I'm just a romantic" bs. This is not charming, sensitive soft boi behavior. This is messed up and terrifying, and I'm so so tired of these types of narratives being played as (or, in cases like 500 Days of Summer, played straightly enough so as to be interpreted as) a positive. I can't even root for her to reject him because then she'll *die*!!!
Also, you're going to feature Charles Lindberg prominently in a book with a black protagonist and have her IDOLIZE him?? That man was a flaming racist. As in full Nazi vibes. Not a good look. (I'm really hoping that gets dealt with by the end but I have a feeling it won't.)
Also, it was boring. Nothing happened. The whole "Cosmic Game of Love" has been proven to work (see: The Night Circus, the play Once on This Island) but the execution here is too vague to be actually intriguing.
Three aspects kept me going:
1. Flora. She seems cool. Too bad she's gotten literally nothing to do by a quarter of the way in.
2. A lot of the prose is nice.
3. Ethan, who is a bit of a little shit, is clearly in love with Henry and I wanted to see how this played out.
But that's not enough anymore. The sleep talking thing really got me. I'm outta here (like Flora should've been when Annabelle let that detail slip).