Review by ginabyeg - Archer's Voice

ginabyeg 's review for:

Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan

2.5

fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

From the synopsis, I was expecting something significantly more robust from this book.

This book seems far less about the story of Archer, or the dynamics of the town, than it does about his and Bree’s sexual life. There were so many sex scenes that I started skipping over them, because they became redundant.

So much about the writing seemed unrealistic. It’s set in present-day (2016 when it first came out), but the characters act like it’s the mid-90’s in terms of technology. The way they utilize cell phones (or don’t) seems out of place with the times, their age/demographic, and the reasoning given isn’t overly strong.

Additionally, the two main characters are in their early 20s, but they talk and think with the wisened life experience of someone in their late 30s or early 40s. Not that 20-somethings don’t have maturity of thought, but the executive functioning parts of their brains are still developing! So in this case, that scientific fact, combined with the PTSD that both experienced from their respective traumas, and the fact that they just talk it through with each other in one conversation each, just feels a little unbelievable and misaligned. How was therapy not a component of this book?

Also, outside of the main characters, everyone else seems very shallow, predictable, and two-dimensional. They conveniently happen to appear or disappear when the author wants to move the plot forward, in ways that often made me roll my eyes and think, “okay, really?”

And while I get why the story is called Archer‘s Voice, there is some irony in the fact that the majority of the chapters are told from Bree’s perspective. I would have appreciated more chapters being told from his vantage point. He kept running the risk of becoming infantilized by having such a heavy focus on Bree’s point of view.

I wanted to get to the crux of Archer’s history, which is about all that kept me reading.

Content Warnings