Reviews with content warning for Classism - Check & Mate

Reviews tagging 'Classism'

jencolumb0's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.75

Another deeply satisfying Ali Hazelwood delight, filled with funny observations, spice, and (mostly) charming characters. (The characters who are not charming get what they deserve and it is satisfying too.)

My own lack of familiarity with chess made the (comforting) tropes feel less predictable. (Though, in the notes, Hazelwood acknowledges that she took a fair amount of liberty with chess details to make the story work out well. I would expect that, if you are a true chess nerd, this book might be annoying . . . and I’d actually be curious as to what is off, technically, about this book. An annotated copy would be super interesting. I digress.)

Mallory & Nolan are easy to ship. Arguably more importantly, as the book unfolds, it’s lovely to see Mallory put down a lot of the things she’s been carrying because she realizes that relationships can be repaired and she’s not as alone as she thinks she is: it doesn’t have to be, forever, as hard as it has been.

Somewhat relatedly, I really appreciated the discussion in the book of casual sex. Mallory is down, depicted (generally) being responsible about it (

the wisdom and safety of hooking up in a car in an otherwise public place raises questions but, throughout the book, there are clear statements of heterosexual couples relying on condoms when engaging in penetrative sex

), clear that “sex” is about sharing of bodies for pleasure and not just p-in-v penetration that can lead to babies, and gives a clearly-articulated explanation as to why she chooses to share her body with the folks she does. The book is fade-to-black (which Hazelwood, naturally, still manages to make steamy but I would call the pre-fade scenes PG-13 at best). Nolan is coded as shades of Ace (or, alternatively, Pan, with

Mallory being the only person he’s ever been interested in having sex with

) SO, reviews that complain about too much discussion of sex are . . . slut-shaming a fictional 18-year-old?? That’s messed up.

Personally, I found this to be a sex-positive delight that slips in neatly between binges of Heartstopper and Sex Education. Bravissima, Ali Hazelwood!

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julells's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Ein wirklich gutes Buch, wenn man sich auch für Sideplots begeistern kann und gerne Schach spielt. Sollte man den Sport allerdings nicht mögen oder auf der Suche nach einer ausschließlichen Liebesgeschichte sein, sollte man von diesem Buch vielleicht lieber die Finger lassen.
Ich glaube alles in allem gefallen mir die Erwachsenen- Romane von Ali Hazelwood (die ich bisher gelesen habe) ein bisschen besser. Trotzdem werde ich bald mal wieder mein eigenes Schachbrett rausholen.

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sundayfever's review

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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yanagi's review

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

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chasingpages1's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

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emilywemily6's review

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hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.75

Ugh. I really loved some things about this book but was bothered by so much. I liked the backdrop of chess, though I felt like while chess was a main focus of the book, it was pretty superficial throughout. I loved Nolan- he was the sweetest! But I didn’t see any reason for him to be in love with Mallory. Honestly there was no chemistry. The voice of this book was hilarious and I laughed a ton at some of the phrasing. But I despised Mallory. She carried too much burden, a lot of which was not her burden to bear, and she didn’t communicate her needs to her family. She ran away from any smidgeon of conflict and was really daft when it came to Nolan for most of the book. And the third act conflict was totally because of her misconceptions and her pouting. It was really dull to keep reading about her stupid choices outside of chess matches. Also, this book mentioned sex/spicy stuff and yet was super vague! So I still wasn’t convinced about Mallory and Nolan’s relationship. And the ending totally skipped over the final chess match which was a missed opportunity, though I liked the epilogue. I’m glad I didn’t buy this book, but my time feels a little wasted because this book went a lot of places I didn’t like.

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