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A review by kp_hobbitreads
Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall
1.0
Something Fabulous: ★☆☆☆☆ | 1 star
I don't know that I have ever felt more letdown by I book I was anticipating.
If you at all identify with Valentine (the demisexual, neurodivergent coded character) then this book is going to be a miserable read. This book actually made me cry real tears. And not because the story moved me emotionally, but because Valentine spent the entire book being laughed at, degraded, abused, and ostracized because he didn't understand things that had never been explained to him. And because you're in his head...you know he is genuinely uncomfortable and honestly has no idea why everyone is mad at him all the time. Even when he is trying to learn or do better, nothing he does is ever good enough - he's too cold or too harsh or too aggressive. And, the moral of the story seems to be you deserved all the bad things that happened to you and they were all your fault which as a queer demisexual, neurodivergent person was just....horrible to read.
Over the top whimsy, satirical humor can when when the characters themselves are loveable or at the very least redeemable. Or when everyone seems to be in on the joke. But, Valentine wasn't. He was the story's punching bag. Every. Single. Time. And, the rest of the characters are literally horrible people who never attempt to empathize with Valentine or consider for even a moment how he might be feeling. And, we are supposed to be rooting for the romance? Yeah, that's a hard no. While Bonnie's assurance to Valentine that his demisexuality is valid was nice to see, it was too little too late. And, honestly doesn't make much sense seeing as Bonnie spent the entire book before that making him feel awful about himself and poking fun at him for not understanding romance or sex. And Bonnie never once stood up to his sister or called her out for how awful she was or how she treated Valentine.
The only ending to this book that would have redeemed it would be if Valentine had told Bonnie and Arabella to fuck off and gone home. And, eventually he finds a happily every after with a partner who isn't emotionally abusive and doesn't gaslight him constantly about everything being his fault. So that's what I'm going to pretend happens.
content warnings: acephobia/arophobia, gun violence, sex (on page), loss of a loved one (in the past), captivity, animal death (accidental)
I don't know that I have ever felt more letdown by I book I was anticipating.
If you at all identify with Valentine (the demisexual, neurodivergent coded character) then this book is going to be a miserable read. This book actually made me cry real tears. And not because the story moved me emotionally, but because Valentine spent the entire book being laughed at, degraded, abused, and ostracized because he didn't understand things that had never been explained to him. And because you're in his head...you know he is genuinely uncomfortable and honestly has no idea why everyone is mad at him all the time. Even when he is trying to learn or do better, nothing he does is ever good enough - he's too cold or too harsh or too aggressive. And, the moral of the story seems to be you deserved all the bad things that happened to you and they were all your fault which as a queer demisexual, neurodivergent person was just....horrible to read.
Over the top whimsy, satirical humor can when when the characters themselves are loveable or at the very least redeemable. Or when everyone seems to be in on the joke. But, Valentine wasn't. He was the story's punching bag. Every. Single. Time. And, the rest of the characters are literally horrible people who never attempt to empathize with Valentine or consider for even a moment how he might be feeling. And, we are supposed to be rooting for the romance? Yeah, that's a hard no. While Bonnie's assurance to Valentine that his demisexuality is valid was nice to see, it was too little too late. And, honestly doesn't make much sense seeing as Bonnie spent the entire book before that making him feel awful about himself and poking fun at him for not understanding romance or sex. And Bonnie never once stood up to his sister or called her out for how awful she was or how she treated Valentine.
The only ending to this book that would have redeemed it would be if Valentine had told Bonnie and Arabella to fuck off and gone home. And, eventually he finds a happily every after with a partner who isn't emotionally abusive and doesn't gaslight him constantly about everything being his fault. So that's what I'm going to pretend happens.
content warnings: acephobia/arophobia, gun violence, sex (on page), loss of a loved one (in the past), captivity, animal death (accidental)