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A review by themermaddie
The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson
2.0
i feel like firstly i need to give a blanket statement that the premise of this book gives off alllllll the red flags, but it was available at the library and i was curious what this obvious rwrb rip off would change. the 2 stars is for the book itself, not counting for the overall problematic aspect of the entire concept.
first, dre was ... annoying as fuck. he was self and whiny and weirdly not empathetic to dean's decision to stay in the closet, especially as the son of the literal republican nominee. his voice did not endear him to me and i didn't care about him at all, therefore i'm annoyed that my favourite character was the white republican boy. dre seemed to take his parents unconditional love for granted and i was not a fan of how he just didn't seem to understand why dean wasn't in the same safe environment to come out as he was. secondly, i'm not mexican so i can't speak for that rep specifically, but dre's pov definitely doesn't read as poc. it hardly seems a factor in his dislike of dean's mom; instead he only criticises her for her lgbt legislation and gun control (which are both things to criticise) but it was especially strange to not address the border issues as a mexican american. poc experience doesn't get erased by queerness and that definitely does not come thru here. it kinda felt like dre and his family were only mexican so that dre's dad could have something "count against him", in the way that dean's mother being a woman counts against her, by way of different societal privileges.
i actually felt a lot of empathy for dean's situation, that's an incredibly difficult position to be in. i wish there had been more about his relationship with his mom, i enjoyed the bit near the end where he expresses all the things he disagrees with her about and how he still can't stop loving her. it's a complicated relationship to have with someone like that, especially one's own mother, and i think that sort of complexity would have been more compelling than the end result of "dean's Republican Mom gets a redemption arc bc she accepts him on national tv." i liked him much more than dre and i thought his actions felt more believable, but the way he speaks can get a little didactic, especially when it comes to speaking about his sexuality. i saw someone else criticise the portrayal of the asexual character as stiff and robotic; i'm not ace but definitely worth a thought.
i thought their romance was insta but it was developed over time after that. it was weird that they got so close so fast after the shooting drill, esp when they didn't really know/like each other. it was also very ~teenage~ which like, yeah i know it's YA but YA can still be complex and good? this book tried to take on so many difficult topics while also trying to appeal to a YA romance crowd and it just doesn't really succeed at any of them. the political atmosphere doesn't really succeed in playing out, neither of them feel genuinely swamped by the election, and the election ends up feeling like a proxy for their teenager love affair.
the blackmail plot was obvious from the very moment it was introduced and was horribly executed. it was so obvious that this apolitical political romance needed a third party candidate to be the "real villain" who ended up just being the antagonist in a kids spy movie. the ending was cheesy and unrealistic, and SPOILERS the lack of reveal in the final chapter is such a cop out and a terrible way to end the book. you can't yell "love wins, asshole" and not reveal whether or not dean's mom repeals gay marriage. dre and dean's gay love is not more important than legislation that actively puts queer ppl's lives in danger and love doesn't conquer all, particularly not here.
there's so much to complain about but i'm sleepy and this book was a bad idea. i don't know how this could've ended happily even having READ the happy ending.
also who the fuck is mindy and why is she like that lmao
first, dre was ... annoying as fuck. he was self and whiny and weirdly not empathetic to dean's decision to stay in the closet, especially as the son of the literal republican nominee. his voice did not endear him to me and i didn't care about him at all, therefore i'm annoyed that my favourite character was the white republican boy. dre seemed to take his parents unconditional love for granted and i was not a fan of how he just didn't seem to understand why dean wasn't in the same safe environment to come out as he was. secondly, i'm not mexican so i can't speak for that rep specifically, but dre's pov definitely doesn't read as poc. it hardly seems a factor in his dislike of dean's mom; instead he only criticises her for her lgbt legislation and gun control (which are both things to criticise) but it was especially strange to not address the border issues as a mexican american. poc experience doesn't get erased by queerness and that definitely does not come thru here. it kinda felt like dre and his family were only mexican so that dre's dad could have something "count against him", in the way that dean's mother being a woman counts against her, by way of different societal privileges.
i actually felt a lot of empathy for dean's situation, that's an incredibly difficult position to be in. i wish there had been more about his relationship with his mom, i enjoyed the bit near the end where he expresses all the things he disagrees with her about and how he still can't stop loving her. it's a complicated relationship to have with someone like that, especially one's own mother, and i think that sort of complexity would have been more compelling than the end result of "dean's Republican Mom gets a redemption arc bc she accepts him on national tv." i liked him much more than dre and i thought his actions felt more believable, but the way he speaks can get a little didactic, especially when it comes to speaking about his sexuality. i saw someone else criticise the portrayal of the asexual character as stiff and robotic; i'm not ace but definitely worth a thought.
i thought their romance was insta but it was developed over time after that. it was weird that they got so close so fast after the shooting drill, esp when they didn't really know/like each other. it was also very ~teenage~ which like, yeah i know it's YA but YA can still be complex and good? this book tried to take on so many difficult topics while also trying to appeal to a YA romance crowd and it just doesn't really succeed at any of them. the political atmosphere doesn't really succeed in playing out, neither of them feel genuinely swamped by the election, and the election ends up feeling like a proxy for their teenager love affair.
the blackmail plot was obvious from the very moment it was introduced and was horribly executed. it was so obvious that this apolitical political romance needed a third party candidate to be the "real villain" who ended up just being the antagonist in a kids spy movie. the ending was cheesy and unrealistic, and SPOILERS the lack of reveal in the final chapter is such a cop out and a terrible way to end the book. you can't yell "love wins, asshole" and not reveal whether or not dean's mom repeals gay marriage. dre and dean's gay love is not more important than legislation that actively puts queer ppl's lives in danger and love doesn't conquer all, particularly not here.
there's so much to complain about but i'm sleepy and this book was a bad idea. i don't know how this could've ended happily even having READ the happy ending.
also who the fuck is mindy and why is she like that lmao