Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Rules of Arrangement

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Rules of Arrangement by Maren Mackenzie

3 reviews

kylieshadereads's review

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

"He was terrible and frustrating and complicated and then something would crack open, and he'd reveal a different, softer self underneath."

⭐️⭐️.75

Rules of Arrangement follows Adelaide ⏤Addie⏤ Wright, a 22-year-old senior who writes papers for other students to pay her way through Cranst University. Although she has measures in place to protect herself from being expelled, in the form of mutually assured destruction, when she runs into an old friend Declan Jones, her art history teaching assistant, he threatens to reveal her secret and have her expelled if she doesn’t help him recover his paintings from art dealer Jack Nolan.

Addie enters into an arrangement with Jack with the intention of finding the paintings, but as her feelings grow she comes to realize that Jack may not be the person Declan described.

TW: suicide, suicide attempt, grief, loss, blackmail, age-gap, death of a parent

This is the debut novel from Maren Mackenzie and although I enjoyed the writing and overall thought the story was entertaining I felt like I have read it before and was left a tad disappointed.

It took me some time to really get into the novel and it wasn’t until chapter eight that I really felt myself starting to want to read it. I felt frustrated by Declan’s character, although he is only two years older than Addie he treats her like a child and is controlling and he often puts her down.

The relationship and vibe between Jack and Addie gave me 50 Shades of Grey vibes but without the “spice level”.

I also felt like Addie’s relationship with her family didn’t always add to the story but hindered it by adding an element that sometimes explained Addie’s flaws but it also felt like conflict for the sake of conflict.

Overall, Rules of Arrangement by Maren Mackenzie was an easy read but left me feeling like something was missing. 2.75/5 stars

Thank you to #netgalley and #MarmackBooks for the eARC in exchange for the honest review, all opinions are my own.

Content Warnings

danaslitlist's review

Go to review page

medium-paced

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

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read an advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

TLDR; I hated this book. Minor thematic spoilers throughout but not major plot points.

When it comes to romance novels it's not uncommon to have to suspend your belief for the sake of the story. Tropes and clichés come with the genre and for the most part it's not hard for me to find those familiar ideas enjoyable. However when the book becomes so saturated with trope upon trope upon trope, it can begin to feel like you're reading a script for a bad Life Time movie. This is one of the problems with Rules of Arrangement. It suffers from “too much” syndrome and as I read further and further I just kept rolling my eyes.

There is also the huge issue of using mental health as a plot device and in doing so creating the “bad guy” who is only “bad” because he is mentally ill. And the reaction of the characters who find out is to either pass judgment on his “weirdness” or to make the whole situation about themselves. There is no grace, compassion, or care in the depiction of mental illness nor is there any actual reason the author needed to include it in the story other than for shock value. It would have been simple to rewrite the character's motives without having it based on a mental illness. Instead we are left with the character not receiving love, support, or an ounce of real understanding.

Not only was there just too much drama and soap opera dynamics, there was just the glaring issue of the plot trying to be more serious than it really is. Yes, getting suspended from a college would be devastating. However making it out that she'd go to jail for writing papers for other students made me laugh out loud. The plot just reads as contrived and forced when it really didn't need to be. I agree with the comments of other reviewers who also felt mislead by the cover and synopsis. I was under the impression going in that the plot was going to be more of an art heist situation, but instead it's a watered down soap opera.

I might've been able to deal with a soap opera-esque plot if I had liked any of the characters. But they were equally as disappointing. Our three main players are Declan, Jack, and Adelaide.

From the get go I was not a fan of Declan at all; he's a snob. Rude and materialistic, self centered and completely absorbed in himself. His “problems” scream first world, rich white guy and it's hard to feel anything for him. He can choke. The way he describes Jack is exactly how I'd describe him: “all he cares about is himself and his own success. He's calculating, vengeful and ice cold”. He's another tool in the author's arsenal to dispense misogyny and toxic masculinity.

Jack is our supposed bad guy in terms of what Declan tells Addie. At first I found him the only likable and real character out of the three, but the more the story progresses the less I liked him. He's controlling and fickle. He's the best example of another glaring issue in this book: The personalities for each character change drastically page by page On one page he was kind and patient, but the next he was jealous and angry out of nowhere which made it quite difficult to get a handle on who he was. This constant flip flopping also spreads into the character relationships. One moment Addie likes Jack and she knows he's a good person, but the next he is reduced to nothing but an evil person. It's very disorientating and confusing, not to mention frustrating.

I saved our main female character for last because I have the most to say about her. At first I felt for Adelaide and the situation she was in. Cut off from her family and desperately trying to make her way through college by writing essays for other students for a price. I honestly don't see the problem with what she's doing and if anything the fault lies with the students who are fine with lying their way through college. At first I viewed Addie as hard working and self reliant and I could at least respect her struggle. However, just like with everything else in the story, the further I read the more I ended up hating her. It took until page fifteen for me to loathe her.

Addie is supposed to be smart, both when it comes to other people and also academically, but she isn't smart at all. She comes off quite dumb. Not just with how she interacts with other people but also in the fact that it just suddenly occurs to her after three years of this side hustle that she could face serious consequences for what she's doing. We're supposed to find Adelaide smart and cunning, mature for her age, but she really isn't. She's incredibly immature and foolish, quick to throw tantrums and quicker to judge. Almost every time she gets mad at Jack I feel the same sense of “boohoo”, because she forgets that she's the one lying, deceiving, and ultimately attempting to rob him. But she wants to act as if she has moral high ground. Nothing can be her fault, she's not the one who was in the wrong. She's not a character I want to root for her even read about.

One of the most disgusting aspects of this book and the biggest turn offs to me was the constant (and I mean almost every chapter) slut shaming and the blatant hate for sex workers and escorts. She belittles them, calls them sleazy, sluts, whores, etc. It's disgusting and a huge turn off. Honestly it feels as though the author has a problem with escorts and sex workers, and used the story as a way to express it. There's one single moment in the book where Jack tells Addie that she should do some work on how she sees escorts which was great, but nothing comes of that at all.

For someone who should understand how difficult it can be to be on your own both in terms of relationships and finances, she is judgmental and snobby when it comes to how others get by. Her constant trashing on escorts especially is nasty and her apparent disdain for them is hypocritical. She's a classic example of “I'm not like other girls” female character. We also get some body checking from her in terms early in the book that gave us a great insight into how she views beauty.

If I had picked this book up and not known what year it was published, I would've assumed it was written in the early eighties based solely off of the way women treat women within the story. In 2022 I would've thought we had grown past the need for female characters who treat other women like trash because they express their sexuality differently or because the main female character simply has some unchecked misogyny.

I feel that my critique is harsh, mostly on Adelaide's character, because I am tired of seeing romance and erotica riddled with such old school views on women especially when it comes to sex work and escorts. And even more so when the author is a woman and honestly should know better. I was hesitant at first to write this review, but ultimately I decided to write it for two reasons:

The first being that I feel other readers should be aware of some glaring issues and potential triggers throughout. My reviews are typically meant for potential readers only hence my I believe they should receive an honest and unfiltered review.

My second reason is in the hopes that maybe if for some reason the author sees this, that she does better. She is a talented writer and there were a handful of moments that I found myself smiling at, but at the core there were so many red flags. Sex work is real work. Escorts and sex workers deserve respect regardless of the reason behind why they're doing what they do. As long as it is consensual there isn't any reason why we should be shaming them.

I implore the author and readers of romance to do better.

Content Warnings

_shannoncarroll's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

3.5

It felt almost shockingly easy to slip into this book. From the first chapter, I felt quite the pull to get me to keep reading and not stop, so I did just that and devoured every page. The book is immensely compelling, and the academia vibes in the setting and its atmosphere were wonderful. Give me an ivy-covered school and a high-end art world, and I’m pretty much sold. The plot is fun and engaging, and the pacing was very well-done. I was never bored.

But… I’m not so sure how I felt about the characters. Adelaide was at times fascinating, but, at other times, she felt half-written. She’s an incredibly smart young woman who knows enough about a broad variety of topics to successfully write college papers for other students, but she’s somewhat dull in conversations and lets herself be manipulated by the men around her. I wished she had more agency. And then there were the “I’m-not-like-other-girls,” “I-don’t-know-I’m-beautiful” vibes that occasionally emanated from her. Adelaide also falls prey to the whole “hot-guy-with-nice-abs-is-interested-in-me-so-I-forget-everything-else-that’s-important-to me” trope, neglecting both her schoolwork (which she’s made her priority up until now) and her friends (who are the only people she can open up to).

At times, the romance between Adelaide and Jack — which I didn’t expect to take up so much of the story, but I’m not mad it did — was swoon-worthy and gave all the requisite butterflies. But, then, at other times, I’m not quite sure where their connection was coming from. I never really got a good sense of why Jack actually liked Adelaide. Why did they want to be together? To that end, I also felt like they weren’t given much of an ending together, and Adelaide wasn’t given one on her own; a lot is made about her future, and then the book ends rather abruptly.

I think more depth and understanding of character would have made me like this book a bit more, but I still definitely enjoyed reading it. Maren Mackenzie’s debut novel is richly interesting and well-plotted, it’s glamorous and intriguing. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next from this author.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Marmack Books, and Maren Mackenzie for proving me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Content Warnings

More...