A review by avanthiannotates
Alter Arlo by Nordika Night

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

It was painful trying to read this for many reasons, which is disappointing because I absolutely loved Garron Park. This "review" is more of a reminder for myself

• There is next to no diversity other than the MM relationships and some mental health rep (which is not great at all). All the characters are white, able-bodied etc and if there are supposed to be and BIPOC characters, it was not overted at all
• One of the main characters is in a gang that uses the Punisher logo as their symbol. This is likely just a coincidence but given the lack of diversity, I question whether the author knows about the symbol's link to white supremacy and neo-nazi groups. It gave me the ICK every time it came up (and it was mentioned a lot)
• There is straight up r@pe in this. And it affects the plot because
  the captive woman constantly mentions it but still stands by the captors side because of the people who sold her to him, rather than, I dunno, burn the world down and get her own revenge on all who've treated her poorly
• It's super misogynistic. By the end, I hated Cadoc and Zade because their misogyny was disgusting and unfounded. This is an issue I keep seeing in MM fiction written by (presumably) straight cis-women
• The plot felt like it was thrown together as it was written. The amount of back and forth of "is this character bad, are they good" made it feel like the author was struggling with it, not the characters. It absolutely could have been executed better that didn't give readers whiplash every two seconds
• The only character I liked was Rosie (fuck yesss chicka), and I tolerated Dante. I would have been happier if this book ended in tragedy 
• The plot was obvious. There was absolutely no subtlety. 
  Literally from the first second we were introduced to Keiran, I guessed that he was Arlo. Same with Finn. It was so painfully obvious. And then Mickey. There was nothing about the plot that wasn't predictable and it made me incredibly frustrated to read because the writing felt like it was trying so hard to be cryptic and edgy

Overall, the only reason I finished this book is because Storygraph doesn't count DNF'd books for the overall total count and I wanted to prove myself right and justified in how much this made me angry.

20/11/23: Updated rating from 2 to 1 star because I'm still mad at this book