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๐ต๐ฒ/๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ โข ๐บ๐ถ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐ป๐ป๐ถ๐ฎ๐น sometimes I don't log in for days on end so if I continue a conversation with you four business days later that's why (เดฆเตเดฆเดฟหแห)
9298 points
3.40 average ย ยทย 51 reviews
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If I had a nickel for every romcom I've read this year that featured a trans guy named Eli (after Elijah Wood in The Lord Of The Rings) and an Asian love interest... I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice!
Jokes aside, this book was beautiful. I wanted to slap some sense into Eli (the pov character) multiple times. He's a mess, he's selfish and so wrapped up in his own story that he frequently forgets that everyone else in his life matters too; and that's kind of the point of him. That's his arc, his conflict, his Thing he needs to deal with before he can move forward. Does he manage it? Read the book and find out!
By contrast, the romantic lead, Peter is an absolute gem of a man. He's awkward, for sure, he's highly inexperienced in love and painfully aware of it. He's also earnest, and gentle, and so so charming in the way that only someone with absolutely zero pretense about them can be. He has his heart on his sleeve pretty much the entire time, and part of that is definitely due to the setup for the story โ Eli's article โ but a large part of it is also just who Peter Park is at his core. I absolutely fell in love with him as I read this book, and if there were a way for me to step into its pages and throw hands on his behalf I would do it in a heartbeat.
The actual plot is fairly predictable โ it's a romcom, of course it is, that's what we're here for โ and I do feel it wrapped up a little too quickly towards the end. We could've stewed a little more in it, let it marinate, but I won't say it felt rushed... more just that I would've happily read another thousand pages about Eli and Peter and their lives. The writing style of the author is also pretty engaging, genuinely funny at times, infuriating at others (Eli... Eli if you were real I would slap you so hard...), and really just kind of a perfect fit for this genre and story.
I will be rereading this one for sure, probably many times. I hope my copy is able to hold up to the amount of rereads it's probably going to have to withstand ๐
Hell Followed With Us
Andrew Joseph White
"America! Come deal with the monsters you've made."
This line is so... I know it's from a fictional speech written for a fictional world, but it feels so apt. So much of modern global politics is influenced by American decisions, made by American politicians, to serve American interests. (Honourary mention for my own country, Britain, and our own monsters too.) And when those decisions eventually run affected countries to ruin, those politicians simply wash their hands and walk away from the aftermath.
I'd heard this book described as "...a long, sustained scream to the various strains of anti-transgender legislation multiplying around the world like, well, a virus." when I was reading its blurb and critical reviews before reading, but I feel like even having read that, I wasn't expecting this book to hit the nail quite so cleanly on the head. As someone whose name I don't recall once said, "when America sneezes, the whole world catches a cold."
