A review by vodzak
Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
1. "Ahhh", with at least three "h"s, but no more than seven "h"s. Just out there in external dialogue, in internal dialogue, at the end of sentences. Drove me up the wall everytime I had to see it, which was often enough that it started pissing me off.
The writing style was also pretty bad. It felt like the main character wasn't 26, or even any semblance of an adult. Constant running inner dialogue that came across as extremely vapid: there's nothing of any actual substance. This added to my general dislike of the main character (see point 3 for more).
2. What was the point of the whole "driving to Pittsburgh because [love interest]'s brother is in the hospital" scene? Character development? Family dynamics? Something about how the main character would do anything for him or whatever? It felt pointless, and didn't serve anything to the characters.
Thinking about it, what was the point of the love interest's brother at all? What was the point of his character? What was the point of meeting the love interest's mom? To prove that the love interest's family life isn't perfect like the main character's, even though family has little to do with whatever the hell else is happening in the book? Even though the love interest themselves said that their family life isn't perfect?
3. I have never hated a character more. Tied with Vin, from Mistborn and the general cast of Red, White, and Royal Blue. The main character of this book was fucking awful. Self absorbed, unable to communicate with anyone at a base level, clueless about life to the point of inspiring anger within me. Everything is about this guy. He can do no wrong. "My parents are great, I lucked into this job, this book I didn't really want to publish is now a best seller that everyone loves."
The thing that pissed me off most is that he's not a good friend to any of the people in his life, in any sense of the word. "I know you and your boyfriend broke up, but I can only think of how that means you're available now, and I'm thinking of bringing this up." Are you serious? Get over yourself.
Even with a friend of the main character saying, "What you did was not a grand romantic gesture and was humiliating to [love interest]", the main character's response boiled down to: "Okay, but I don't get why [love interest] isn't talking to me, it's been a while, how much more time do they need?"
Are you shitting me? Who wrote this? I'm losing my mind.
I get that it's supposed to be a "he's helpless, it's so cute" kinda thing, but, at the end of this book, I was getting to the point of rage just reading his dialogue, inner and outer. I was tempted to just stop reading it, but I was already halfway done and just powered through it out of spite.
4. Thinking about it, why does the main character even love the love interest? One kiss in college and that's it? How did he get to this point? There's no explanation, no backstory. Guy's saying he loves them, and I can only take his word for it. It seems like he's in love with the idea of the love interest more than anything else.
Honestly, the same applies vice versa: It doesn't even seem like the love interest is into the main character, and I don't know how it got to be like this. The interactions between the two come across as the love interest just not caring for the main character enough to be romantically interested in him.
(0.25 out of 5, because while I didn't like this book at all, it's similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue, in that it's been a lot of fun to rant about it in this review and wonder what questionable editor read this book and thought, "This is okay to publish for people to read.")
The writing style was also pretty bad. It felt like the main character wasn't 26, or even any semblance of an adult. Constant running inner dialogue that came across as extremely vapid: there's nothing of any actual substance. This added to my general dislike of the main character (see point 3 for more).
2. What was the point of the whole "driving to Pittsburgh because [love interest]'s brother is in the hospital" scene? Character development? Family dynamics? Something about how the main character would do anything for him or whatever? It felt pointless, and didn't serve anything to the characters.
Thinking about it, what was the point of the love interest's brother at all? What was the point of his character? What was the point of meeting the love interest's mom? To prove that the love interest's family life isn't perfect like the main character's, even though family has little to do with whatever the hell else is happening in the book? Even though the love interest themselves said that their family life isn't perfect?
3. I have never hated a character more. Tied with Vin, from Mistborn and the general cast of Red, White, and Royal Blue. The main character of this book was fucking awful. Self absorbed, unable to communicate with anyone at a base level, clueless about life to the point of inspiring anger within me. Everything is about this guy. He can do no wrong. "My parents are great, I lucked into this job, this book I didn't really want to publish is now a best seller that everyone loves."
The thing that pissed me off most is that he's not a good friend to any of the people in his life, in any sense of the word. "I know you and your boyfriend broke up, but I can only think of how that means you're available now, and I'm thinking of bringing this up." Are you serious? Get over yourself.
Even with a friend of the main character saying, "What you did was not a grand romantic gesture and was humiliating to [love interest]", the main character's response boiled down to: "Okay, but I don't get why [love interest] isn't talking to me, it's been a while, how much more time do they need?"
Are you shitting me? Who wrote this? I'm losing my mind.
I get that it's supposed to be a "he's helpless, it's so cute" kinda thing, but, at the end of this book, I was getting to the point of rage just reading his dialogue, inner and outer. I was tempted to just stop reading it, but I was already halfway done and just powered through it out of spite.
4. Thinking about it, why does the main character even love the love interest? One kiss in college and that's it? How did he get to this point? There's no explanation, no backstory. Guy's saying he loves them, and I can only take his word for it. It seems like he's in love with the idea of the love interest more than anything else.
Honestly, the same applies vice versa: It doesn't even seem like the love interest is into the main character, and I don't know how it got to be like this. The interactions between the two come across as the love interest just not caring for the main character enough to be romantically interested in him.
(0.25 out of 5, because while I didn't like this book at all, it's similar to Red, White, and Royal Blue, in that it's been a lot of fun to rant about it in this review and wonder what questionable editor read this book and thought, "This is okay to publish for people to read.")