Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ihateprozac 's review for:
Ruckus
by L.J. Shen
It says it all that this took me a month to get through.
If I hadn’t read Vicious, I would have bought into the Dean x Rosie dynamic a lot more. If you read this as a stand-alone romance, they have adequate chemistry and the sex scenes are bomb AF. But reading this as a sequel, the characterisation and continuity are SO OFF. These don’t feel like the characters of the first novel, and Dean’s motivations and views of Rosie don’t mesh with what we saw of him in the first book.
This book is also SO fucking ableist when it comes to Rosie. Her family treat her like absolute shit and deprive her of having any agency, all under the guise of caring for her. She’s living independently and relatively happy in NYC, but her parents are honestly fucking VILE to her and they’re never appropriately pulled up on their bullshit. This book could’ve had a strong disability pride theme, but it’s just grossly mishandled and devoid of nuance. Her parents need to get in the fucking bin.
Dean treats Rosie a lot better than her own family, though he puts her in at least two situations which result in her getting sick. Ughhhhhh.
Dean is kinda boring and one dimensional, but I enjoyed seeing him deal with his addictions and family trauma. However, I ultimately wanted more from him as a person - the passion for astronomy specifically could’ve been explored further. He could be more than a big dick in a nice suit, but he’s never given the room to be anything other than that.
Vicious was legit AMAZING but this was mehhhh. Gonna trudge onward and finish out the series, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up the kids’ spin-off anytime soon!
If I hadn’t read Vicious, I would have bought into the Dean x Rosie dynamic a lot more. If you read this as a stand-alone romance, they have adequate chemistry and the sex scenes are bomb AF. But reading this as a sequel, the characterisation and continuity are SO OFF. These don’t feel like the characters of the first novel, and Dean’s motivations and views of Rosie don’t mesh with what we saw of him in the first book.
This book is also SO fucking ableist when it comes to Rosie. Her family treat her like absolute shit and deprive her of having any agency, all under the guise of caring for her. She’s living independently and relatively happy in NYC, but her parents are honestly fucking VILE to her and they’re never appropriately pulled up on their bullshit. This book could’ve had a strong disability pride theme, but it’s just grossly mishandled and devoid of nuance. Her parents need to get in the fucking bin.
Dean treats Rosie a lot better than her own family, though he puts her in at least two situations which result in her getting sick. Ughhhhhh.
Dean is kinda boring and one dimensional, but I enjoyed seeing him deal with his addictions and family trauma. However, I ultimately wanted more from him as a person - the passion for astronomy specifically could’ve been explored further. He could be more than a big dick in a nice suit, but he’s never given the room to be anything other than that.
Vicious was legit AMAZING but this was mehhhh. Gonna trudge onward and finish out the series, but I don’t think I’ll be picking up the kids’ spin-off anytime soon!