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eliotts_library 's review for:
The King's Men
by Nora Sakavic
Now that it's been a while since I finished this series and I'm no longer an absolute mess over it, I think I can finally write a review.
This. Series. DESTROYED ME. And I loved every second of it. If you know me, you know I love books with really strong friendships, and if there is a romance then it's just like a side thing and not the main point of the book. This whole series was everything that I love in a book.
Strong friendships. Like literally "I am willing to risk my own life for you because that's the kind of friends we are" kind of friendship. Even when Neil thought they would all abandon him, they stuck by his side no matter what. It's just pure, unconditional love and I'm ?????? KILL ME. They all love and respect each other so much. Half the team are giant pieces of shit in terms of personality, but they still respect each other. Like with Neil not wanting to be shirtless around anyone. None of them know why, but they never question it, and they go out of their way to make sure he's comfortable. Even the characters who don't get along with Neil at all, they still respect this boundary and they never make him feel bad about it and I'm just?? WOW. SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL THESE CHARACTERS.
Strong female characters!! Every single female in this series is bad ass and I love all of them.
Normalized LGBTQ+ characters!!!! My favourite thing ever is reading a book that is not labelled as LGBT and then discovering that one or more of the main characters are LGBT. Like. YES. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME CHARACTERS WHERE BEING GAY ISN'T THEIR BIGGEST PERSONALITY TRAIT. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I just get a little tired when the only time I can read about characters like me is when they're coming out. As someone who has been out of the closet for over a decade, I really love seeing LGBT characters doing other things. And my issue with books that are labelled specifically as LGBT, is that that becomes the biggest "issue" in the book. All for the Game isn't like that. It's just a bunch of normal dudes playing normal sports and running for their normal lives from Yakuza, and some of them just happen to be gay. NORMALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY. THIS IS WHAT I WANT. THIS IS WHAT THIS SERIES GAVE ME. THANK YOU NORA SAKAVIC.
Slow burning romance. The love interests in this series meet in the first book. They don't get together until the last one. They spend time together. They get to know each other. They learn how to work together and how to trust each other as friends first. And then they try a relationship. And the amount of respect between the two??? Oh my god. They will never cross boundaries. They understand each other's limits and respect them, never question it, and never complain. It's such a healthy relationship and I'm still not over it tbh.
CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. And not just with the main character. What I love about this series is that all of the characters have a chance to grow and it's so wonderful. We get to watch them go from angry and broken and no clue what to do, to being still broken but with an incredible support team to help them through everything. Most of these characters in the beginning had the mentality that they were on their own. No one would ever help them, or ever want to. We get to watch them all come to the realization that they do have people in their lives who love them. For some of the characters, this is the first time they've ever felt loved. And it's just so beautiful to watch this kind of unconditional love and friendship develop and oh man I'm crying again brb
I understand entirely that this series is not for everyone. It is very violent and deals with content that could be extremely triggering for a lot of people. But if you don't have these triggers and are ok with reading this level of violence, then I would 100% recommend this series. It's definitely one of my favourites
This. Series. DESTROYED ME. And I loved every second of it. If you know me, you know I love books with really strong friendships, and if there is a romance then it's just like a side thing and not the main point of the book. This whole series was everything that I love in a book.
Strong friendships. Like literally "I am willing to risk my own life for you because that's the kind of friends we are" kind of friendship. Even when Neil thought they would all abandon him, they stuck by his side no matter what. It's just pure, unconditional love and I'm ?????? KILL ME. They all love and respect each other so much. Half the team are giant pieces of shit in terms of personality, but they still respect each other. Like with Neil not wanting to be shirtless around anyone. None of them know why, but they never question it, and they go out of their way to make sure he's comfortable. Even the characters who don't get along with Neil at all, they still respect this boundary and they never make him feel bad about it and I'm just?? WOW. SO MUCH LOVE FOR ALL THESE CHARACTERS.
Strong female characters!! Every single female in this series is bad ass and I love all of them.
Normalized LGBTQ+ characters!!!! My favourite thing ever is reading a book that is not labelled as LGBT and then discovering that one or more of the main characters are LGBT. Like. YES. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME CHARACTERS WHERE BEING GAY ISN'T THEIR BIGGEST PERSONALITY TRAIT. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. I just get a little tired when the only time I can read about characters like me is when they're coming out. As someone who has been out of the closet for over a decade, I really love seeing LGBT characters doing other things. And my issue with books that are labelled specifically as LGBT, is that that becomes the biggest "issue" in the book. All for the Game isn't like that. It's just a bunch of normal dudes playing normal sports and running for their normal lives from Yakuza, and some of them just happen to be gay. NORMALIZING HOMOSEXUALITY. THIS IS WHAT I WANT. THIS IS WHAT THIS SERIES GAVE ME. THANK YOU NORA SAKAVIC.
Slow burning romance. The love interests in this series meet in the first book. They don't get together until the last one. They spend time together. They get to know each other. They learn how to work together and how to trust each other as friends first. And then they try a relationship. And the amount of respect between the two??? Oh my god. They will never cross boundaries. They understand each other's limits and respect them, never question it, and never complain. It's such a healthy relationship and I'm still not over it tbh.
CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. OH MY GOD. SO GOOD. And not just with the main character. What I love about this series is that all of the characters have a chance to grow and it's so wonderful. We get to watch them go from angry and broken and no clue what to do, to being still broken but with an incredible support team to help them through everything. Most of these characters in the beginning had the mentality that they were on their own. No one would ever help them, or ever want to. We get to watch them all come to the realization that they do have people in their lives who love them. For some of the characters, this is the first time they've ever felt loved. And it's just so beautiful to watch this kind of unconditional love and friendship develop and oh man I'm crying again brb
I understand entirely that this series is not for everyone. It is very violent and deals with content that could be extremely triggering for a lot of people. But if you don't have these triggers and are ok with reading this level of violence, then I would 100% recommend this series. It's definitely one of my favourites