Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones

I finally got around to Check Please! book two and was mildly disappointed.

In fairness, I had a friend warn me that the second graphic novel in Erik Bittle's story wasn't as good as the first. The first Check Please! spent so much time setting up the boys, the hockey lingo, and the budding relationship that I think a second one was always going to fall flat for me. Did it deliver in cute and funny moments? Yes, but it also severely suffered from a sometimes rushed and flat plotline. I feel like I was confused by a lot of moments early on and struggled to adjust to the sheer amount of dialogue on the page in some panels.

I really do love Erik and all the things he went through in the total of book one and book two, but the emotional impact didn't quite hit the same in book two. Though the ending was really sweet and I'm happy for the characters, I do wish I'd just listened to my friend who said to skip this one and just enjoy the first book for what it was - adorably gay baker falls in love with a hockey player.

Content warnings: homophobia discussion throughout the book as it deals with two main characters navigating a male-dominated field that is often homophobic, outing occurs towards the end of the book where two characters agree to go public to mostly happy, but some mixed results.

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sfbookgirl's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

After loving Check Please: Book 1, I immediately dived into Book 2! I enjoyed reading about the crazy, wholesome dynamic that the hockey players on Samwell’s team possess and their open-mindedness. I won’t say too much as I don’t want to spoil Book 1, but Book 2 is equally as fun to read. Bitty’s tweets at the end are also quite the hoot. I love how Ukazu continued with the vlogger style format with Bitty and amped up his pie-making passion…the guy even wrote his senior thesis about pies. 🥧😆 All and all, Check, Please is a fantastic series if you are looking for something fun and heartwarming.

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emilywasbored's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Oh my goodness, my heart! I love Eric and Bitty and their relationship progresses so realistically in this book. Their challenges are ones that a lot of people from the LGBTQ+ community face and the story as a whole feels really authentic. While I don't know that much about hockey, that doesn't matter because you're still cheering for these boys and this team. I absolutely loved this and can see why it's so popular!

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pastelwriter's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I have...conflicting feelings about this second and final installment in this series.

I will start by addressing the things that made this a not so perfect reading experience. One of the things I don't like about this graphic novel is the ratio of dialogue to art. There is sooooo much dialogue in this! Some pages are so overwhelming to look at because they're stuffed full of words. Like my art friend said, a decision needed to be made: either the art had to take up more of the page so all the words wouldn't look so crammed together OR there needed to be less words. Personally, I feel like there is too much telling in this volume. There are not enough moments where the artwork just speaks for itself.

The second issue I had was with the pacing of this. It moved far too quickly. Some chapters ended abruptly, and then the next chapter was a time skip. It just made the reading experience feel like a car jerking abruptly forward and backward. It was just jarring. I definitely felt like each year of Bitty's life could have been its own volume which was then carefully developed. Cramming two years of his life into one volume just made this feel very dense.

The other thing about this series is that...there are far too many characters. I could not keep up at all. This is more of a me issue than an issue with the graphic novel...but it affected my reading experience. Visually, I could perfectly tell the characters apart, but most of them I could not remember their names for the life of me. Were the side characters cute? Yes. Fun? Yes. Enjoyable? Yes. Do I know the names of anyone that isn't Shitty and Lardo? No.

Ultimately, though, I cannot deny that this book gave me feels. I came out of the first volume loving Bitty a lot, and my love for him certainly continued in this installment. His fear of coming out to his parents, and his desire to share the joy of his relationship with his friends made me want to scream. Bitty being especially afraid of his dad's reaction to him being gay? I cry every day and every night. Like I'm not gonna lie, every time Bitty cried I wanted to cry with him. I just want good things for Bitty! He deserves the world!

Jack in this volume also really won me over. He was so sweet and gentle with Bitty. He understood Bitty's frustrations and didn't hold them against him. Jack comforted Bitty and was just in his corner as much as Bitty was in Jack's corner. It made my heart melt completely. And how nervous Jack got when he met Bitty's dad? Be still my heart!

At the end of the day, I had a lot of fun reading this (apart from my issues with it). I settled on a 3.5 star rating because what was good in this volume was really good, but the things that bothered me were not easily ignored. Ultimately, I would still recommend the series for anyone looking for a relatively light read with a sweet romance at the heart of it.

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samchase112's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Saying goodbye to the Samwell Men's Hockey Team was difficult, but so much fun - in terms of the book itself, of course. I enjoyed this little look into their life so much, and sincerely wish they were actually all hanging out in a hockey down the street in Boston for me to go visit. They're hilarious, supportive, dedicated, and amazing friends. Bitty and Jack's story was so well done here, and I'm so glad we got to see it play out this way. The only reason I didn't give this one a full five stars is because I didn't feel as connected to or invested to the characters in this one as I did in the first. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed this series and couldn't stop laughing out loud (my roommates were a bit confused...). I love this team and this artwork and this graphic novel!!!

Reread: Oct 2021

This story and its message are just absolutely amazing. It gives me all the warm fuzzies, and I just can't get enough.

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