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renegades 's review for:
Glitterland
by Alexis Hall
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5 stars, rounded up because despite my reservations, I just could not stop reading this book lmao
In one of the author’s notes, Alexis Hall describes Glitterland as “intensely first person POV” and actually that’s the perfect description for this book. It is extremely intensely first person, a book where you spend most of the time in one character’s head, with his unreliable thoughts, experiencing the things he is experiencing acutely, but not much else besides because he himself is unable to do that.
I’m going to be honest—I didn’t fully love the love interest, Darian, here. He’s sweet and kind and funny, lovely really, but the Essex accent was so hard to get used to (although admittedly fun after a while) and we are so in Ash’s head that Darian comes off as pretty simple and one dimensional. I would have loved actual depth with him, more explored backstory, but I get it—it’s the perils of being in such a self-centered character’s head.
There are a ton of things here that would have irritated me with any other writer and I think written by anyone else, I probably would have been completely over Ash and his self-pitying, destructive, asshole, selfish behavior too but idk. I actually really liked him, even when he was clearly being a dick.
Ash is very much an unlikable protagonist, and he blames every part of his behavior constantly on his being a bipolar anxious depressive, but I strangely didn’t mind. I thought the exploration of his character, though frustrating, was pretty interesting. I was never bored, even when I wanted him to get a grip.
I loved the weird fucked up relationship triangle between him and his old college friends, honestly would have read an entire book of backstory to them they seemed messy and terrible and so fun.
Anyway, I read this in three days—couldn’t stop reading it, in fact, even when I didn’t vibe with the main couple or even particularly ship them—so that has to count for a half star bump at least. Not the greatest book by any means, but ykw I had a pretty good time.
In one of the author’s notes, Alexis Hall describes Glitterland as “intensely first person POV” and actually that’s the perfect description for this book. It is extremely intensely first person, a book where you spend most of the time in one character’s head, with his unreliable thoughts, experiencing the things he is experiencing acutely, but not much else besides because he himself is unable to do that.
I’m going to be honest—I didn’t fully love the love interest, Darian, here. He’s sweet and kind and funny, lovely really, but the Essex accent was so hard to get used to (although admittedly fun after a while) and we are so in Ash’s head that Darian comes off as pretty simple and one dimensional. I would have loved actual depth with him, more explored backstory, but I get it—it’s the perils of being in such a self-centered character’s head.
There are a ton of things here that would have irritated me with any other writer and I think written by anyone else, I probably would have been completely over Ash and his self-pitying, destructive, asshole, selfish behavior too but idk. I actually really liked him, even when he was clearly being a dick.
Ash is very much an unlikable protagonist, and he blames every part of his behavior constantly on his being a bipolar anxious depressive, but I strangely didn’t mind. I thought the exploration of his character, though frustrating, was pretty interesting. I was never bored, even when I wanted him to get a grip.
I loved the weird fucked up relationship triangle between him and his old college friends, honestly would have read an entire book of backstory to them they seemed messy and terrible and so fun.
Anyway, I read this in three days—couldn’t stop reading it, in fact, even when I didn’t vibe with the main couple or even particularly ship them—so that has to count for a half star bump at least. Not the greatest book by any means, but ykw I had a pretty good time.