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A review by nikkibd4033
Better Than People by Roan Parrish
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Jack Matheson is a children's book illustrator with a chip on his shoulder ever since his writing partner screwed him over. Simon Burke is a self-employed graphic designer who has a stutter and a bad anxiety disorder that's lead to a case of selective mutism. When Jack breaks his legs, he needs someone to help take care of his "pack" of four dogs and four cats. He puts an ad on an app and is matched up with Simon, who adores animals but can't have one due to his grandmother's allergy.
At first Simon can't bring himself talk to Jack, but he slowly becomes more comfortable and in the meantime, the chip on Jack's shoulder softens. Before you know it these two guys are falling in love. But Simon fears that once Jack's leg is healed, he won't understand how awful it can be to be with a guy like him - who has panic attacks and can barely manage to give his coffee order to a barista.
This seemed like it'd be such a sweet story, but it was kind of disappointing. It had a lot of the tropes I like - pets, shyness, small towns, LGBT+ with no homophobia, etc but it never really came together. The main characters had their problems, but somehow they still seemed to lack a little depth. And listen, I like a good steamy sex scene as much as the next person, but the sex scenes in this book seemed out of place because the rest of the book had a sweeter vibe to it. IDK. Also, Jack is super into dirty talk and it just didn't work for me. And he called Simon "Darlin'" which is a word I hate.
Anyway, I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did. Too bad.
At first Simon can't bring himself talk to Jack, but he slowly becomes more comfortable and in the meantime, the chip on Jack's shoulder softens. Before you know it these two guys are falling in love. But Simon fears that once Jack's leg is healed, he won't understand how awful it can be to be with a guy like him - who has panic attacks and can barely manage to give his coffee order to a barista.
This seemed like it'd be such a sweet story, but it was kind of disappointing. It had a lot of the tropes I like - pets, shyness, small towns, LGBT+ with no homophobia, etc but it never really came together. The main characters had their problems, but somehow they still seemed to lack a little depth. And listen, I like a good steamy sex scene as much as the next person, but the sex scenes in this book seemed out of place because the rest of the book had a sweeter vibe to it. IDK. Also, Jack is super into dirty talk and it just didn't work for me. And he called Simon "Darlin'" which is a word I hate.
Anyway, I wanted to like it a lot more than I actually did. Too bad.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders