A review by annoyedhumanoid
Fence: Striking Distance by Sarah Rees Brennan

emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

this book left me deeply unwell.
there are two very distinct parts to the plot, {Aiden & Harvard} and {Nicholas & Seiji}. the latter pair's plot felt very juvenile, and Seiji is literally Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory which… idk how i feel about. from reading the comics, i felt like his self-isolation was because he was stuck up and pretentious, not because he's oblivious to social cues. he definitely reads as neurodivergent, which i appreciate, but i feel the writing infantilized him. honestly i love Nicholas' character, specifically his outlook and his genuine disregard for Aiden—bruise men's egos!! and even though the hijinks read more like middle grade fiction
(and the cover advertises it as "a novel"—i don't like the treatment of YA as having lesser value, but doesn't such a designation usually imply like adult fiction? but whatever it's probably meant to communicate that, unlike the source material, this not a graphic novel)
, it grew on me and i found it sweet.
which leads me to the other half, with Aiden and Harvard. i was more interested by their chapters, but right at climactic moments it would switch to Nicholas and Seiji. sure, it creates tension, but not enough to last, so when it returns to Aiden and Harvard the immediacy of the situation has dissipated, making for some not great pacing. where Nicholas and Seiji's storyline was generally wholesome and lighthearted, this one is very much angst. without spoiling anything, let me just say that if you were looking for something fluffy, it'll be hard to find here.
with eleven minutes left in the audiobook Aiden and Harvard hadn't gotten together and i was starting to sweat. and then i came to the final chapter and it was from Nicholas' perspective, so how would the reconciliation and mutual confessions of love be portrayed? skip the vulnerable moment entirely and show only the aftermath? nope, it just doesn't happen at all.
this book had me crying on benches in public and then had the audacity to leave me hanging. thank god i didn't read it before the sequel was released,, except there's no audiobook for the sequel (yet) so i basically did! cruel, and not even in an enjoyable, masochistic kind of way. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue and Winter's Orbit are much better M/M romances with unknown mutual pining and horrible miscommunication.
anyways, here's a playlist i made based on their relationship: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4zIP3MaMFpDPehAkxRjxlR.
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