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A review by nickartrip102
Follow the River by CE Ricci
2.0
Ooof, it’s all Sodom and Gomorrah galore, honey.
This is nothing short of an abomination, and those aren’t words I say lightly as a gay man. I’m not even religious, but this book was enough to evoke my righteous fury. To be entirely fair, I can only blame myself and the author for this experience. I blame myself, because I did specifically request a “toxic” romance which is how I landed on Follow the River by C.E. Ricci — I anticipated some jealousy, possessiveness, poor communication skills, that sort of thing, potentially with a cliffhanger as this appears to be part of a duology. River is a college football star. Handsome and amiable, he has has never had an issue winning over a woman. Or a man. He’s openly bisexual which throws a wrench in his blossoming friendship with Ciaráin, who is carrying around a lifetime of baggage of his own.
spoilers ahead:
From the beginning of the book, it’s very clear that Ciaráin is carrying around a lot of trauma, which is why I excused the blatant and repetitive homophobia that colored the first quarter of the novel. It made sense for his character. At some point, however, it became gratuitous. Then there’s the issue with River’s behavior which is predatory. Although Ciaráin uses somewhat violent language to turn down River, River persists in sexualizing him at every turn. As a result, it was difficult to view any tension that arose between the pair as anything other than prolonged sexual harassment. The more I read the more obvious it became that this book was more invested in fetisizing queer sex through a certain lens and for a particular audience than it was in queer storytelling or romance. Which is fine, a pot for every lid, people should read what they like, but it does mean that this isn’t a story I would comfortably recommend to a gay reader.
Unfortunately, that was only the tip of the iceberg.
River and Ciaráin’s first instance of anal intercourse occurs via sexual assault. Ciaráin brutally attacks and sexually assaults River in the shower while they are isolated in a house together as punishment for fighting during a game. They spend some time apart in the house, but eventually come back together. Their next sexual encounter sees the roles reversed, with Ciaráin imploring River to stop on more than one occasion. The words “no” and “stop” are used, but ignored. Apparently the retaliatory sexual assault breaks the ice for them to begin having a more normal relationship.
The two being to grow closer and Ciaráin expresses deep regret over raping River. River attempts to assure him that it wasn’t rape. He even goes so far to ask, “did you hear the word ‘no’”? This seems particularly odd and hypocritical given a sexual encounter mentioned above where Ciaráin did say “no” and “stop” but River persisted. Ciaráin then expresses further remorse when he and River are called “faggots” for making out in public, which was a nice instance of character growth that was undermined by River minimizing his actions, much as he did with Ciaráin’s sexual assault.
Ciaráin is a survivor of molestation and sexual assault. It is revealed that he was molested by his stepfather, and I want to take a moment to discuss something that really disturbed me: the graphic, detailed depictions of the sexual assault of a minor that are contained in this book. Although it is made clear what is happening is wrong I can recall one scene in particular that was written with the same sexual charge as some of the the consensual acts between Ciaráin and River. To me this felt completely inappropriate, especially in the context of a romance novel. When Ciaráin reveals his history of abuse to River it is followed by a sex scene (Ciaráin bottoms for the first time in their relationship.) People have unique trauma responses and I don’t aim to judge how anyone reacts to such news or copes with their trauma, but I think a chapter break or something here would have made this feel less awkward and given this moment of great vulnerability property gravity. Ciaráin once again expresses regret for raping James, which James once again downplays without acknowledging his own problematic behavior. Yikes.
As predicted I predicted, the book ends on a cliffhanger. I may choose to read the next book, I may not. I had a lot of issues with this one, but I do want to point out somethings that were done well. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Ciaráin and River when they weren’t assaulting one another. I also think the author does a tremendous job of writing angst. I will also point out that the author does offer a blanket trigger warning without specification at the beginning of the book and does suggest readers upset by the material seek help. Unfortunately, too many issues (sexual assault, graphic depictions, and River’s lack of accountability) are handled irresponsibly in this book to justify giving it any sort of high rating, but judging by the current GoodReads rating many others didn’t share my same concerns.
This is nothing short of an abomination, and those aren’t words I say lightly as a gay man. I’m not even religious, but this book was enough to evoke my righteous fury. To be entirely fair, I can only blame myself and the author for this experience. I blame myself, because I did specifically request a “toxic” romance which is how I landed on Follow the River by C.E. Ricci — I anticipated some jealousy, possessiveness, poor communication skills, that sort of thing, potentially with a cliffhanger as this appears to be part of a duology. River is a college football star. Handsome and amiable, he has has never had an issue winning over a woman. Or a man. He’s openly bisexual which throws a wrench in his blossoming friendship with Ciaráin, who is carrying around a lifetime of baggage of his own.
spoilers ahead:
From the beginning of the book, it’s very clear that Ciaráin is carrying around a lot of trauma, which is why I excused the blatant and repetitive homophobia that colored the first quarter of the novel. It made sense for his character. At some point, however, it became gratuitous. Then there’s the issue with River’s behavior which is predatory. Although Ciaráin uses somewhat violent language to turn down River, River persists in sexualizing him at every turn. As a result, it was difficult to view any tension that arose between the pair as anything other than prolonged sexual harassment. The more I read the more obvious it became that this book was more invested in fetisizing queer sex through a certain lens and for a particular audience than it was in queer storytelling or romance. Which is fine, a pot for every lid, people should read what they like, but it does mean that this isn’t a story I would comfortably recommend to a gay reader.
Unfortunately, that was only the tip of the iceberg.
River and Ciaráin’s first instance of anal intercourse occurs via sexual assault. Ciaráin brutally attacks and sexually assaults River in the shower while they are isolated in a house together as punishment for fighting during a game. They spend some time apart in the house, but eventually come back together. Their next sexual encounter sees the roles reversed, with Ciaráin imploring River to stop on more than one occasion. The words “no” and “stop” are used, but ignored. Apparently the retaliatory sexual assault breaks the ice for them to begin having a more normal relationship.
The two being to grow closer and Ciaráin expresses deep regret over raping River. River attempts to assure him that it wasn’t rape. He even goes so far to ask, “did you hear the word ‘no’”? This seems particularly odd and hypocritical given a sexual encounter mentioned above where Ciaráin did say “no” and “stop” but River persisted. Ciaráin then expresses further remorse when he and River are called “faggots” for making out in public, which was a nice instance of character growth that was undermined by River minimizing his actions, much as he did with Ciaráin’s sexual assault.
Ciaráin is a survivor of molestation and sexual assault. It is revealed that he was molested by his stepfather, and I want to take a moment to discuss something that really disturbed me: the graphic, detailed depictions of the sexual assault of a minor that are contained in this book. Although it is made clear what is happening is wrong I can recall one scene in particular that was written with the same sexual charge as some of the the consensual acts between Ciaráin and River. To me this felt completely inappropriate, especially in the context of a romance novel. When Ciaráin reveals his history of abuse to River it is followed by a sex scene (Ciaráin bottoms for the first time in their relationship.) People have unique trauma responses and I don’t aim to judge how anyone reacts to such news or copes with their trauma, but I think a chapter break or something here would have made this feel less awkward and given this moment of great vulnerability property gravity. Ciaráin once again expresses regret for raping James, which James once again downplays without acknowledging his own problematic behavior. Yikes.
As predicted I predicted, the book ends on a cliffhanger. I may choose to read the next book, I may not. I had a lot of issues with this one, but I do want to point out somethings that were done well. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Ciaráin and River when they weren’t assaulting one another. I also think the author does a tremendous job of writing angst. I will also point out that the author does offer a blanket trigger warning without specification at the beginning of the book and does suggest readers upset by the material seek help. Unfortunately, too many issues (sexual assault, graphic depictions, and River’s lack of accountability) are handled irresponsibly in this book to justify giving it any sort of high rating, but judging by the current GoodReads rating many others didn’t share my same concerns.