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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
Glitterland by Alexis Hall was recommended to me by my friend and fellow author Luna Harlow (whose review of it can be found here), and I am so, so glad I took her up on the rec. Spoilers: I loved it.
Glitterland is the story of stuck-up novelist Ash Winters, post-breakdown and suffering from anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. When he runs into aspiring model and Essex boy, Darian Taylor, who he can only describe with the words glitter pirate, Ash absolutely intends to have no more than a casual hookup with him. But despite himself, Ash finds himself drawn to Darian's honest good nature, even while he's ashamed by his awareness of what the people around him, who already think less of him due to his breakdown, will think of him for being with someone so lower-class. And mental illness is no fun ride, either, making him want to ruin his own happiness. But is it possible that being around someone who doesn't want to fix him—someone who just wants to be there with him through the hard times as well as the good—can help him move forward?
This book had me from page one. I've had anxiety attacks before, and the description of how he felt was so horrifically familiar. All kudos to Alexis for being able to describe it so aptly—and everything else besides. The prose in this book is lovely, and the writing feels like what I'd expect from a first-person narrator who is also a literary author.
Beyond that, the character writing is wonderful. Everybody is complicated. Characters frequently say terrible things because they're hurting; that doesn't make them terrible, and the narrative doesn't give them a pass for the terrible things they say even while it understands and empathizes with them. The writing is careful about these things most of the time; for example, one character early on says something unpleasant about bi people, but the narrative itself shows the bi character happy, genuine, and loving, and also shows that the rudeness of the speaker there is rooted in his own current pain.
In a lot of ways, this story is about words. What people say that they don't mean, what people don't say that they do, and when it's time to try to balance that back out again. It's also about taking responsibility versus acting out of guilt, and admitting culpability versus self-hatred. It's a book that is very kind to itself and the characters in it while not going easy on the terrible things people can do to each other when upset, guilty, afraid. As I said earlier, it's also about mental illness, and how hard it can be both on the person with it and those around them... while not blaming them for it, not acting like behavior is immutable, and accepting, too, that sometimes executive dysfunction is part of it. Sometimes sadness happens. Sometimes worse. It treats it as something Ash is living with (and sometimes doesn't know how to live with), and doesn't either victimize him for it or hate him for it. It feels very, very genuine.
It's also really darn cute, which is incredibly impressive when dealing with material as heavy as this book does. I found myself smiling throughout the whole thing, and sometimes sending my fiancee quotes. The characters are charming and the dialogue is witty and it was fun.
Ultimately, it was a book I had faith in to do its best by its characters, and it lived up to that.
Glitterland is the story of stuck-up novelist Ash Winters, post-breakdown and suffering from anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. When he runs into aspiring model and Essex boy, Darian Taylor, who he can only describe with the words glitter pirate, Ash absolutely intends to have no more than a casual hookup with him. But despite himself, Ash finds himself drawn to Darian's honest good nature, even while he's ashamed by his awareness of what the people around him, who already think less of him due to his breakdown, will think of him for being with someone so lower-class. And mental illness is no fun ride, either, making him want to ruin his own happiness. But is it possible that being around someone who doesn't want to fix him—someone who just wants to be there with him through the hard times as well as the good—can help him move forward?
This book had me from page one. I've had anxiety attacks before, and the description of how he felt was so horrifically familiar. All kudos to Alexis for being able to describe it so aptly—and everything else besides. The prose in this book is lovely, and the writing feels like what I'd expect from a first-person narrator who is also a literary author.
Beyond that, the character writing is wonderful. Everybody is complicated. Characters frequently say terrible things because they're hurting; that doesn't make them terrible, and the narrative doesn't give them a pass for the terrible things they say even while it understands and empathizes with them. The writing is careful about these things most of the time; for example, one character early on says something unpleasant about bi people, but the narrative itself shows the bi character happy, genuine, and loving, and also shows that the rudeness of the speaker there is rooted in his own current pain.
In a lot of ways, this story is about words. What people say that they don't mean, what people don't say that they do, and when it's time to try to balance that back out again. It's also about taking responsibility versus acting out of guilt, and admitting culpability versus self-hatred. It's a book that is very kind to itself and the characters in it while not going easy on the terrible things people can do to each other when upset, guilty, afraid. As I said earlier, it's also about mental illness, and how hard it can be both on the person with it and those around them... while not blaming them for it, not acting like behavior is immutable, and accepting, too, that sometimes executive dysfunction is part of it. Sometimes sadness happens. Sometimes worse. It treats it as something Ash is living with (and sometimes doesn't know how to live with), and doesn't either victimize him for it or hate him for it. It feels very, very genuine.
It's also really darn cute, which is incredibly impressive when dealing with material as heavy as this book does. I found myself smiling throughout the whole thing, and sometimes sending my fiancee quotes. The characters are charming and the dialogue is witty and it was fun.
Ultimately, it was a book I had faith in to do its best by its characters, and it lived up to that.
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:
Yes
This book is fun, witty, centered around mental health, smutty, has a love triangle situation, and all together an enjoyable read.
Is this categorized as romance?!? Like I'm shocked. The MMC was an asshole and so fucking judgey and mean to the love interest. It just irritated me. I think the author was probably trying to be funny but I chuckled maybe once at what Mr. Essex said/did. No thanks. I don't wanna be angry.
This was incredibly good, and every single person who DNFed because Darian's accent annoyed them should be ashamed of themselves (it's the point of the book that his accent doesn't define him as a person!) More thoughts in my Reading Vlog.
[4.5 stars]
[4.5 stars]
Opposites attract is definitely a trope I can get behind. I like the way Ash and Darian complemented each other and (eventually) accepted their differences.
The purple prose might have been more annoying, but it felt like how I imagined Ash’s inner monologue to sound, which made it more tolerable. But I can see why others found this irritating.
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator did a fantastic job with the dialects. I think it would have been a challenge for me to read Darian’s dialogue in my own (internal) voice!
The purple prose might have been more annoying, but it felt like how I imagined Ash’s inner monologue to sound, which made it more tolerable. But I can see why others found this irritating.
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrator did a fantastic job with the dialects. I think it would have been a challenge for me to read Darian’s dialogue in my own (internal) voice!
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-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
What a guttingly raw and tragically funny read.
Read this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: clinically anxious bipolar depressed protagonist, panic attacks, faphobia, biphobia,depression and anxiety, suicidal ideation, class difference; mentions of suicide attempt, absent parent.
This is my fourth time reading and loving this book, so I figured it was time to write a review.
Glitterland is easy to read, but it's not an easy read. The writing is beautiful, lyrical and deeply insightful while also being funny, the plot and romance draws you in, but Ash is mean and difficult, and that's completely unrelated to his mental illness.
Darian, the love interest, is from a completely different world than upper British middle class Ash, who's a literary writer and went to a fancy school. Meanwhile, Darian has a spray tan, coiffed hair, doesn't have higher education and works as a model. They have absolutely nothing in common and should have nothing to talk about together.
And yet.
Ash and Darian together were a thing of beauty. The way Darian made Ash feel is heady and makes not only Ash but the reader, too, feel alive, like there's something worth living for.
But the way Ash views Darian isn't always easy to read. He thinks - and often says - all the things for which a man like him might look down on a man like Darian, and it's presumptious and prejudiced and mean, and just as shallow as he accuses Darian of being.
And despite that, Ash is head over heels for him. He just needs to get over himself and accept that someone else could be all head over heels for himself too.
The romance is beautiful and messy, which is something I always appreviate about Alexis Hall's writing. It's raw and unafraid to show the protagonists at their worst, and yet prevail throughout their flaws and horrible decisions.
The audiobook, which I tried now for the first time on this reread, is great as well. I cannot speak on the accuracy of the accents, but I greatly enjoyed hearing them.
Read this review and more on the blog!
Content warnings include: clinically anxious bipolar depressed protagonist, panic attacks, faphobia, biphobia,depression and anxiety, suicidal ideation, class difference; mentions of suicide attempt, absent parent.
This is my fourth time reading and loving this book, so I figured it was time to write a review.
Glitterland is easy to read, but it's not an easy read. The writing is beautiful, lyrical and deeply insightful while also being funny, the plot and romance draws you in, but Ash is mean and difficult, and that's completely unrelated to his mental illness.
Darian, the love interest, is from a completely different world than upper British middle class Ash, who's a literary writer and went to a fancy school. Meanwhile, Darian has a spray tan, coiffed hair, doesn't have higher education and works as a model. They have absolutely nothing in common and should have nothing to talk about together.
And yet.
Ash and Darian together were a thing of beauty. The way Darian made Ash feel is heady and makes not only Ash but the reader, too, feel alive, like there's something worth living for.
But the way Ash views Darian isn't always easy to read. He thinks - and often says - all the things for which a man like him might look down on a man like Darian, and it's presumptious and prejudiced and mean, and just as shallow as he accuses Darian of being.
And despite that, Ash is head over heels for him. He just needs to get over himself and accept that someone else could be all head over heels for himself too.
The romance is beautiful and messy, which is something I always appreviate about Alexis Hall's writing. It's raw and unafraid to show the protagonists at their worst, and yet prevail throughout their flaws and horrible decisions.
The audiobook, which I tried now for the first time on this reread, is great as well. I cannot speak on the accuracy of the accents, but I greatly enjoyed hearing them.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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
dark
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have ALOT to say about this book. First of all, I love how Alexis portrayed Ash’s mental illness. Second, the bonus chapter, Shadowland, had me crying my eyes out. I need a book just about max and Niall.
I am still kind of conflicted about the ending. Ash is almost unforgivable, in my opinion. He is very questionable, but still somehow lovable. I have much more to say but I don’t want to spoil this book.
I am still kind of conflicted about the ending. Ash is almost unforgivable, in my opinion. He is very questionable, but still somehow lovable. I have much more to say but I don’t want to spoil this book.