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A review by audhdylan
Boy Fallen by Chris Gill
3.0
**The following is a review of an ARC supplied by Chris Gill and PRNTD Publishing in exchange for this honest review. Thank you to them for the opportunity!**
//Actual rating ~3.5.//
I am a big fan of this genre. Anything in media from TV to books that is LGBTQ+ and suspense, mystery, crime, or thriller? Count me in!
The dual narrative style was cool and felt like how a good Netflix limited series would flow, with revealing flashbacks and side-story interspersed into the real-time story. This was nicely done, but as others have noted, I’d have liked to see more of that story and be more invested in the characters.
I didn't feel like I *liked* any character. Not that I hated them, but I just didn't find myself caring about them or feeling like they had fully-developed personalities and backstories that I was invested in.
The flashback segments provided a lot of needless explanation of substance use, including a few weird things like referring to taking a drag on a cigarette as a “toke,” and overly-explained depictions of drug use. I'm not even a smoker but I know nobody would put a single unprotected cigarette in their back pocket as they walked around... It seemed like these forced descriptions were being used to add edginess but they ended up taking me out of it. In a single page of dialogue, there would be several references to holding a cigarette or looking at a bag of coke and it’s like, okay, we get it. The more I think about it, the more I connect this to when movies use smoking as a crutch to make a character "cool" or "bad" in lieu of providing real elements of tension and drama to a scene.
The present-day story spent a lot of word count talking about how it was raining, where it could have spent making us care deeply about who this boy was. It feels sort of '2006 young adult gay novel' to focus so much on "being gay" and not many specific elements of that. There was a brief hint at religion, and some mixed perceptions of the older generation, but I didn't feel invested in his struggle. A plot element of a character losing their job or going through something traumatic carries a lot more meaning. Sex work was hinted at but never explored in a meaningful way. Obviously, there is still homophobia in 2022, but it's depicted in a low-hanging fruit kind of way.
Aside from the drug and cigarette references, it just didn't "go there." It didn't get graphic or particularly specific with the violent elements. It didn't have any sex scenes or scandals, really.
I remember wondering why there was press following this family around when nothing was even happening. Paparazzi and live news coverage will move on 24-48 hrs after something even as big as a high-profile murder if nothing is going on to keep them connected to the story. And if I felt that way, certainly they would have. What would they have captured? The detective walking in and out of the house? And the rain?
The ending felt very rushed, and the twist *was* unexpected, to be fair. The problem is that nothing led up to that. Give me some hints, some weird details earlier on in the book that seem random but then all give you that "ah-ha" moment in the end when everything clicks together. The makings of a good thriller rely on a creative, winding, detailed narrative. A random, disconnected plot twist and quick ending are basically like a cheap jump-scare in a horror movie, not the "whodunnit" reveal that makes you gasp and cover your mouth in a theater.
I don't mean to be too critical here, because I think there are some makings of a great story here, it just needed more. It felt like the amount of edge that would be allowed in a high school library catalog and not something that challenged me as a reader in the way that something like Bath Haus did.
//Actual rating ~3.5.//
I am a big fan of this genre. Anything in media from TV to books that is LGBTQ+ and suspense, mystery, crime, or thriller? Count me in!
The dual narrative style was cool and felt like how a good Netflix limited series would flow, with revealing flashbacks and side-story interspersed into the real-time story. This was nicely done, but as others have noted, I’d have liked to see more of that story and be more invested in the characters.
I didn't feel like I *liked* any character. Not that I hated them, but I just didn't find myself caring about them or feeling like they had fully-developed personalities and backstories that I was invested in.
The flashback segments provided a lot of needless explanation of substance use, including a few weird things like referring to taking a drag on a cigarette as a “toke,” and overly-explained depictions of drug use. I'm not even a smoker but I know nobody would put a single unprotected cigarette in their back pocket as they walked around... It seemed like these forced descriptions were being used to add edginess but they ended up taking me out of it. In a single page of dialogue, there would be several references to holding a cigarette or looking at a bag of coke and it’s like, okay, we get it. The more I think about it, the more I connect this to when movies use smoking as a crutch to make a character "cool" or "bad" in lieu of providing real elements of tension and drama to a scene.
The present-day story spent a lot of word count talking about how it was raining, where it could have spent making us care deeply about who this boy was. It feels sort of '2006 young adult gay novel' to focus so much on "being gay" and not many specific elements of that. There was a brief hint at religion, and some mixed perceptions of the older generation, but I didn't feel invested in his struggle. A plot element of a character losing their job or going through something traumatic carries a lot more meaning. Sex work was hinted at but never explored in a meaningful way. Obviously, there is still homophobia in 2022, but it's depicted in a low-hanging fruit kind of way.
Aside from the drug and cigarette references, it just didn't "go there." It didn't get graphic or particularly specific with the violent elements. It didn't have any sex scenes or scandals, really.
I remember wondering why there was press following this family around when nothing was even happening. Paparazzi and live news coverage will move on 24-48 hrs after something even as big as a high-profile murder if nothing is going on to keep them connected to the story. And if I felt that way, certainly they would have. What would they have captured? The detective walking in and out of the house? And the rain?
The ending felt very rushed, and the twist *was* unexpected, to be fair. The problem is that nothing led up to that. Give me some hints, some weird details earlier on in the book that seem random but then all give you that "ah-ha" moment in the end when everything clicks together. The makings of a good thriller rely on a creative, winding, detailed narrative. A random, disconnected plot twist and quick ending are basically like a cheap jump-scare in a horror movie, not the "whodunnit" reveal that makes you gasp and cover your mouth in a theater.
I don't mean to be too critical here, because I think there are some makings of a great story here, it just needed more. It felt like the amount of edge that would be allowed in a high school library catalog and not something that challenged me as a reader in the way that something like Bath Haus did.