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4.34 AVERAGE
4.34 AVERAGE
hmm................ok. i wasn't gonna write a review but i guess we're doing it. plot spoilers so watch out, but also what i hope is an informative mini-essay about the key issues raised by the book.
--
i watch a lot of sport. i enjoy watching sport a lot. this enjoyment was somewhat hindered a couple years ago after i listened to an episode of malcolm gladwell's 'revisionist history' podcast (season 3, episode 2: 'burden of proof'). my old mate malcolm dove straight in, pulling no punches, openly criticising the lasting impact college and pro football has on young men in north america. citing more than one famous example, the podcast discussed extreme cases of CTE in young sportsman.
of course, i knew logically that concussions = bad, and therefore multiple concussions = super bad. i hadn't, however, heard of the widespread epidemic of CTE - a degenerative brain disease diagnosed to people with repeated head traumas. this disease leads to any number of different brain-related damage; severe behavioural problems, depression and anxiety, and dementia, to name a few. CTE was first discovered as a disease in boxers that had sustained multiple head injuries, however is now a recognised risk in any high-contact sports as well as in the military. this recognition remains low-key, though.
i read up on CTE after listening to gladwell's podcast. i couldn't believe it was something i hadn't heard of previously, and i know malcolm has a mild tendency to over-exaggerate his stories when he's pushing an agenda. he tackles it from the perspective of needing a certain amount of proof
in order to establish danger - and he cites the case of CTE being one that people ask for too much proof, endangering young sportspeople in the meantime. everything i found on it, however, seemed to point to him being correct: CTE is an epidemic that is being swept under the rug in favour of colleges needing to assemble the strongest and most aggressive teams, needing to impress NCAA agents, secure funding from major leagues and stakeholders, etc etc.
(get back to talking about the book, ell):
i thought this book was going to be cute. the red white and royal blue of edmonton oilers fanfic. i'll skim over the first 50%, which was basically hockey player m/m softcore porn with little plot (not a problem, honest), but this book was not at all what it said on the tin. instead, it was an indictment of the repercussions of high-risk contact sport. not a scathing indictment, as such, but definitely a commentary on the worst that can happen in pro sport (epitomised in the final few pages, which to me felt more like the author speaking than her boyish character). the book still loves sport, and balances the bad with the good.
i guess that's where the key debate lies. the degenerative health risks of high-contact sport are immense and bulky positions suffer the most. malcolm gladwell calls for an end to the NFL as the only way to save young players from CTE. he's probably right on paper, but a multi-billion dollar industry won't flop on the back of a minority of players suffering excessive head trauma. not when they know the risks. WHICH IS THE POINT I AM NOW GETTING TO, THANKS FOR BEARING WITH ME.
college players don't become NCAA level players overnight. these are kids that have trained in their sport since they were in primary school. players in some of the more full-on sports have been suffering head injuries at high school level. you can kit up a kid as much as you like for protection, but the most powerful way they can be protected is to be aware of the risks of sustained head injuries from the get go. siphon off some of that $14 billion USD you've got going there to invest in widespread education facilities that outline the risks explicitly for young players. let it be okay for players to retire earlier than their contract stipulates if they are at a higher risk of CTE.
i love spectator sport. truly i do, and i think the author of this book does too. the characters in the book love hockey. they've invested their lives in hockey and paid the highest price. it's not okay, but it's their choice. they love their sport.
its a romance book, sure. there's plenty of sex and plenty of angst and plenty of cute. what this book is doing is using the romance as the vessel to exhibit the devastation produced by degenerative brain trauma in contact sport. i quite enjoyed it conceptually and removed from the nuances of the actual storyline.
here is a link to gladwell's podcast to learn a bit more: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/22-burden-of-proof
and here's a link to a lecture he gave at UPenn condemning sports culture's failure to address CTE in a productive way (its roughly an hour...strap in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWaPXzTDEDw
-
ok i'm done now. i have a 4000 word article on australian cinema due that i should be writing but i chose to read this instead lol
--
i watch a lot of sport. i enjoy watching sport a lot. this enjoyment was somewhat hindered a couple years ago after i listened to an episode of malcolm gladwell's 'revisionist history' podcast (season 3, episode 2: 'burden of proof'). my old mate malcolm dove straight in, pulling no punches, openly criticising the lasting impact college and pro football has on young men in north america. citing more than one famous example, the podcast discussed extreme cases of CTE in young sportsman.
of course, i knew logically that concussions = bad, and therefore multiple concussions = super bad. i hadn't, however, heard of the widespread epidemic of CTE - a degenerative brain disease diagnosed to people with repeated head traumas. this disease leads to any number of different brain-related damage; severe behavioural problems, depression and anxiety, and dementia, to name a few. CTE was first discovered as a disease in boxers that had sustained multiple head injuries, however is now a recognised risk in any high-contact sports as well as in the military. this recognition remains low-key, though.
i read up on CTE after listening to gladwell's podcast. i couldn't believe it was something i hadn't heard of previously, and i know malcolm has a mild tendency to over-exaggerate his stories when he's pushing an agenda. he tackles it from the perspective of needing a certain amount of proof
in order to establish danger - and he cites the case of CTE being one that people ask for too much proof, endangering young sportspeople in the meantime. everything i found on it, however, seemed to point to him being correct: CTE is an epidemic that is being swept under the rug in favour of colleges needing to assemble the strongest and most aggressive teams, needing to impress NCAA agents, secure funding from major leagues and stakeholders, etc etc.
(get back to talking about the book, ell):
i thought this book was going to be cute. the red white and royal blue of edmonton oilers fanfic. i'll skim over the first 50%, which was basically hockey player m/m softcore porn with little plot (not a problem, honest), but this book was not at all what it said on the tin. instead, it was an indictment of the repercussions of high-risk contact sport. not a scathing indictment, as such, but definitely a commentary on the worst that can happen in pro sport (epitomised in the final few pages, which to me felt more like the author speaking than her boyish character). the book still loves sport, and balances the bad with the good.
i guess that's where the key debate lies. the degenerative health risks of high-contact sport are immense and bulky positions suffer the most. malcolm gladwell calls for an end to the NFL as the only way to save young players from CTE. he's probably right on paper, but a multi-billion dollar industry won't flop on the back of a minority of players suffering excessive head trauma. not when they know the risks. WHICH IS THE POINT I AM NOW GETTING TO, THANKS FOR BEARING WITH ME.
college players don't become NCAA level players overnight. these are kids that have trained in their sport since they were in primary school. players in some of the more full-on sports have been suffering head injuries at high school level. you can kit up a kid as much as you like for protection, but the most powerful way they can be protected is to be aware of the risks of sustained head injuries from the get go. siphon off some of that $14 billion USD you've got going there to invest in widespread education facilities that outline the risks explicitly for young players. let it be okay for players to retire earlier than their contract stipulates if they are at a higher risk of CTE.
i love spectator sport. truly i do, and i think the author of this book does too. the characters in the book love hockey. they've invested their lives in hockey and paid the highest price. it's not okay, but it's their choice. they love their sport.
its a romance book, sure. there's plenty of sex and plenty of angst and plenty of cute. what this book is doing is using the romance as the vessel to exhibit the devastation produced by degenerative brain trauma in contact sport. i quite enjoyed it conceptually and removed from the nuances of the actual storyline.
here is a link to gladwell's podcast to learn a bit more: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/22-burden-of-proof
and here's a link to a lecture he gave at UPenn condemning sports culture's failure to address CTE in a productive way (its roughly an hour...strap in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWaPXzTDEDw
-
ok i'm done now. i have a 4000 word article on australian cinema due that i should be writing but i chose to read this instead lol
2.5 stars. It would've been lower if the ending of the book was different. Spoilers ahead.
Ok, so first I'm going to address the giant fucking elephant in the room: the age gap! A 12 year age gap. The relationship starts when the love interest, Liam, is 18. The main character, Mike, is 30. Gross. And Mike is soooo very aware of how wrong it is. His fellow teammate, Rogers, tries to protect Liam from Mike with no success. It feels gross and bad. It feels like Liam is being taken advantage of, because he is. I don't like reading a book where I can't like the main character because they have done disgusting shit, stuff that I can't even let pass even though it's fiction. As a person writing gay characters, you would hope Fitzpatrick would steer clear from writing into the "predatory gay man" stereotype. No. She practically made a textbook definition of it. I don't like that, as a gay man. And I would caution the other women reading this book (since that's who the audience is, straight women) against brushing off Liam and Mike's relationship. It's a stereotype, and it's shitty that women get off on it.
When Fitzpatrick included a message at the start of the book forbidding her family from reading her book, I got a bad taste in my mouth. So it's okay to write about gay relationships but it's not okay for your family to read them? Are gay relationships something to be ashamed of? That's what it feels like, reading that message as a gay person.
Anyway, that's my two cents on that. Moving on to more about the book.
The start of the book is pretty standard. I thought it was cute when it was just Liam following Mike around like a duck, but I wasn't looking forward to their relationship progressing. In fact, I was never rooting for their relationship! I like Mike as a character (romantic relationship with Liam aside) and I thought his perspective was fun to read.
Anyway, so Liam and Mike start sleeping together, often. Liam is characterized as a sort of vixen- childish and immature, but also very, very into sex. Mike is grumpy and reluctant, until he isn't. Liam gets a boyfriend over summer and then cheats on him with Mike and then dumps him for Mike, who doesn't want to be in a relationship with Liam anyway. I don't know, but I thought Liam was a more decent guy than that. Whatever.
Then Mike gets his concussion. In comes the second part of the book. It was the better written portion of the book, in my eyes. I was going to tear this book to shreds before I read the second part. While reading, at this point, I didn't think Liam and Mike would get together, because I had seen briefly that this book had a sad ending. And again, Mike knows this relationship is not good. He knows Liam could do better. Spoiler alert: Liam does not get another boyfriend that he ends up with. He sticks with Mike. And Mike slowly gets less and less able to be independent due to his previous concussions and the issues that those caused. That's the sad ending, not that the two of them go their separate ways.
Their relationship is cute at points during this portion of the book, because Liam is older and if I make myself forget the way their relationship started, it feels less gross. Mike is actually giving a little to the relationship, even if he doesn't want to admit it's a relationship. And it's sad to read about Mike, don't get me wrong. I was getting a little down, because that shit is hard to read about. Fitzpatrick does a good job writing it. But it's overshadowed by how their relationship started and the age gap. Its not really brought up by either of the two's family members, either. But I can imagine the talk that's going on when Liam and Mike aren't around. I know people in relationships that started like this-- with one person in their teens and the other in their 30s. People think it's creepy.
And Mike dies at the end (but the dog doesn't. lol). Liam is sad and heartbroken, and the ending is left open.
Honestly, I don't understand why Liam loves Mike so much. The easy answer is that they're characters written for each other.
I just don't get it. Overall, I guess I just don't get it at all. I don't get why their relationship had to be this way. I feel like Liam being like 22 and immature wouldn't read much differently, and it would feel hell of lot less like cradle robbing. I don't get why people love this book. I don't get it. I hope I never will.
Ok, so first I'm going to address the giant fucking elephant in the room: the age gap! A 12 year age gap. The relationship starts when the love interest, Liam, is 18. The main character, Mike, is 30. Gross. And Mike is soooo very aware of how wrong it is. His fellow teammate, Rogers, tries to protect Liam from Mike with no success. It feels gross and bad. It feels like Liam is being taken advantage of, because he is. I don't like reading a book where I can't like the main character because they have done disgusting shit, stuff that I can't even let pass even though it's fiction. As a person writing gay characters, you would hope Fitzpatrick would steer clear from writing into the "predatory gay man" stereotype. No. She practically made a textbook definition of it. I don't like that, as a gay man. And I would caution the other women reading this book (since that's who the audience is, straight women) against brushing off Liam and Mike's relationship. It's a stereotype, and it's shitty that women get off on it.
When Fitzpatrick included a message at the start of the book forbidding her family from reading her book, I got a bad taste in my mouth. So it's okay to write about gay relationships but it's not okay for your family to read them? Are gay relationships something to be ashamed of? That's what it feels like, reading that message as a gay person.
Anyway, that's my two cents on that. Moving on to more about the book.
The start of the book is pretty standard. I thought it was cute when it was just Liam following Mike around like a duck, but I wasn't looking forward to their relationship progressing. In fact, I was never rooting for their relationship! I like Mike as a character (romantic relationship with Liam aside) and I thought his perspective was fun to read.
Anyway, so Liam and Mike start sleeping together, often. Liam is characterized as a sort of vixen- childish and immature, but also very, very into sex. Mike is grumpy and reluctant, until he isn't. Liam gets a boyfriend over summer and then cheats on him with Mike and then dumps him for Mike, who doesn't want to be in a relationship with Liam anyway. I don't know, but I thought Liam was a more decent guy than that. Whatever.
Then Mike gets his concussion. In comes the second part of the book. It was the better written portion of the book, in my eyes. I was going to tear this book to shreds before I read the second part. While reading, at this point, I didn't think Liam and Mike would get together, because I had seen briefly that this book had a sad ending. And again, Mike knows this relationship is not good. He knows Liam could do better. Spoiler alert: Liam does not get another boyfriend that he ends up with. He sticks with Mike. And Mike slowly gets less and less able to be independent due to his previous concussions and the issues that those caused. That's the sad ending, not that the two of them go their separate ways.
Their relationship is cute at points during this portion of the book, because Liam is older and if I make myself forget the way their relationship started, it feels less gross. Mike is actually giving a little to the relationship, even if he doesn't want to admit it's a relationship. And it's sad to read about Mike, don't get me wrong. I was getting a little down, because that shit is hard to read about. Fitzpatrick does a good job writing it. But it's overshadowed by how their relationship started and the age gap. Its not really brought up by either of the two's family members, either. But I can imagine the talk that's going on when Liam and Mike aren't around. I know people in relationships that started like this-- with one person in their teens and the other in their 30s. People think it's creepy.
And Mike dies at the end (but the dog doesn't. lol). Liam is sad and heartbroken, and the ending is left open.
Honestly, I don't understand why Liam loves Mike so much. The easy answer is that they're characters written for each other.
I just don't get it. Overall, I guess I just don't get it at all. I don't get why their relationship had to be this way. I feel like Liam being like 22 and immature wouldn't read much differently, and it would feel hell of lot less like cradle robbing. I don't get why people love this book. I don't get it. I hope I never will.
I am floored. Absolutely floored by this book! I went into this knowing what happens at the end, but I still ugly cried when it was over. I’ve never had a book make me tear up the day after I’ve finished it, but here I am, all choked up again writing this.
The ending is sad, yes, but it’s also such a stunning, multifaceted love story. And THAT is what sticks with me.
This is told almost entirely from Mike’s pov. This grumpy, caustic, stubborn, STUBBORN man. His voice is distinct and droll, his grumptacular observations made me laugh so many times. He is absolutely flummoxed by the rookie’s antics. Liam is so damn charming - an exuberant, tenacious “kid” that literally bulldozes his way into Mike’s life and heart (despite him trying so very hard for that not to happen and god forbid he should fucking admit to it once it does!!). Their relationship starts off as mainly a physical connection - and it was off. the. charts!!
The ending is sad, yes, but it’s also such a stunning, multifaceted love story. And THAT is what sticks with me.
This is told almost entirely from Mike’s pov. This grumpy, caustic, stubborn, STUBBORN man. His voice is distinct and droll, his grumptacular observations made me laugh so many times. He is absolutely flummoxed by the rookie’s antics. Liam is so damn charming - an exuberant, tenacious “kid” that literally bulldozes his way into Mike’s life and heart (despite him trying so very hard for that not to happen and god forbid he should fucking admit to it once it does!!). Their relationship starts off as mainly a physical connection - and it was off. the. charts!!
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read a lot of sad books, because I like to torture myself, but this book was a new level. Almost 280 pages of pure agony and pain. My heart hurts like it hasn't in quite a while. I don't even know what to say at this point, but being a chronically ill teenager this story hit hard. Mike's and my health situations are vastly different, but I can relate to the pain and frustration of being chronically ill so much. When I was told this book is a great, but sad hockey romance I wasn't expecting the story to take such a turn. I don't know what rode this author to make us hurt so cruley, but I am so glad I read it. In a way it was very refreshing, but it's currently 11pm, I am supposed to be sleeping and instead I cannot stop crying my eyes out. 10/10 experience, absolutely wouldn't recommend, go read it now!
A perfectly imperfect and beautifully written book.
The ending is heartbreaking in a way I just wasn't prepared for and I probably would never have read it if I'd realised, but I'm glad I did
It took a little while to get into to be honest, but it was worth sticking with. Even if it's left me completely destroyed
The ending is heartbreaking in a way I just wasn't prepared for and I probably would never have read it if I'd realised, but I'm glad I did
It took a little while to get into to be honest, but it was worth sticking with. Even if it's left me completely destroyed
This is why I have to look up spoilers on good reads before every book I read because I go into think thinking it’s just an innocent book and then Mike dies at the end and after 12 years can’t even tell Liam he loves him?!!!!?!! After everything???? Fully wrecked
Not your usual romance
Hmm. This book has all the things I, personally, don't care for. However, the author crafts this tell in such a way that I love it. I giggled, awwed and cried through this story. It is much more realistic than your average romance and if you're looking for a light hearted story; this isn't it. It addresses hard issues while displaying an amazing love story. Great read!!!
Hmm. This book has all the things I, personally, don't care for. However, the author crafts this tell in such a way that I love it. I giggled, awwed and cried through this story. It is much more realistic than your average romance and if you're looking for a light hearted story; this isn't it. It addresses hard issues while displaying an amazing love story. Great read!!!
This book came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting it. I don't really know what to say about it, other than it was heartbreaking and beautiful and frustrating and honest. Oh, and it made me cry in the end!
I'm devasted, this has broken me in two. I don't think I'll be able to continue working today. My god, that ending.