Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - My Policeman

this book was so much better than I was expecting. it's historical fiction which is something I don't usually lean into, but this surprised me so much that I might actually decide to read more historical fiction.

even tho the characters are very explicitly flawd, specially Marion and Tom (in my opinion), I still really enjoyed this.

I also absolutely love the way it's written. the writing is so beautiful.

this is set in Brighton, UK in the 50's and I loved the descriptions of this place. it made me really wanna visit it someday.

after reading this I'm even more excited to see the movie and to see Tom being played by Harry Styles.

Btw, since this is an LGBTQ+ story set in the 50's in the UK when it was illegal to be apart of the community, pls note that there is a lot of homophobia and other things that might trigger some people, so look up trigger warnings before reading.

Content Warnings

euphemia's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

2.5

the writing was amazing, the plot wasnt. marion, one of the main three characters and also the main narrator, was infuriating as a person. patrick just got served the run of the mill "bury/torture your gays" trope with that random double stroke????? and tom literally did nothing, he just stood there and got his dick sucked and looked pretty. the author apparently didnt think him deserving to have at least a chapter where he speaks his mind about this whole "sharing" arrangement them three have.

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zoe_archambault's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.5

Beautiful prose. Gut wrenching yet cute story. Satisfying yet I-want-more ending.

Content Warnings

sib_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Content Warnings

reader_in_the_meadow's review against another edition

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medium-paced

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

1.5

The novel My Policeman was written by Bethan Roberts and was first published in 2012. It tells the story of the three individuals Thomas/Tom, Marion and Patrick that develop a polyamorous realtionship.

The plot on it's own had a great premise, but didn't deliver in my opinion. By making the whole story just really revolve around only these three human beings it got boring at one point. But I have to say that I would be pleased if this novel would be rewritten by the author so that these flaws could be fixed.

The characters were not my kind of dish. People who know me know that I really need well worked out characters in books. That means that they have to be diverse, have depth and not behave the same way all the time, unlike the characters in this book. I'm not saying they were bad, I'm just saying, that I personally didn't like them.
Also, I really really disliked the reapresentation of gay/achillean men in this book. The character of Patrick was in my opinion build wholly on the prejudice that gay men are sex driven and can only think about that. And that is not a good way of representing our minority.

The writing was okay. It wasn't all bad and it could buold a really beautiful atmosphere at some points by describing not too detailed but just detailed enough. But then there were moments, when that atmosphere was just suddenly tore to shreds.
Again, people who know me, know that I don't like first person POV very much, and it definitely didn't help about my opinion on this book.

So, was there anything that I liked? Not really. And I don't want you, dear reader of my review, to just read my review, because there are people out there who like this book. And maybe you are one of them.
So, yeah, I didn't like this book, but just like with all books, that is just one opinion.

Content Warnings

neptunereign's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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