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jassmine 's review for:
Glitterland
by Alexis Hall
emotional
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It’s difficult, sometimes, for me to understand that I have the power to hurt someone. You see, it requires me to accept that somebody might like me in the first place.
From all of Alexis Hall's books this was the one I was most worried about not liking. The result for this was twofold - my brain wasn't able to make sense of the blurb (this does happen to me quite often actually, so no shade to the blurb, although... it could do a bit better job at accuracy) and as a non-native english speaker, I was a little worried about the accent. I do get the point of using accents and dialects in fiction and I do approve, but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes it means the book is bordering on too hard to read for me. As you can see from my rating however, I have been worried over nothing.
I got the audio of this for an absolute steal and thanks to my lack of calming-before-bed-audiobook readiness, I got to this (way) sooner than expected. The audio of this is really great btw and I am wondering if it made the accent thing easier for me as well.
There are two main motives in the story, one could be already guessed from what I wrote about the accent so far - class and the other being mental health, namely one of the protagonists being bipolar. I really loved both of those. I won't lie, the class aspect was stressing me some, because Ash is self-loathing and depressed at the beginning and he's not kind in his thoughts. The things he thought about Darian were toeing the line for me in places, but thankfully we got Niall, so in comparison Ash seemed almost likeable. I'm kind of kidding though, I actually did find Ash likeable from the beginning, he's unsufferable, but his mental struggles were relatable in places and I absolutely got why he was acting like a dick, so... But yeah, I absolutely do get why peoples mileage on this might wary.
Anyway, this was great and I'm already looking forward to re-reading it. If you can, I would recommend the audio to your attention because Nicholas Boulton does a great job with the accents. Also, apparently there are two versions of this, I read the re-worked one and really liked it.
What more can I say, Alexis Hall is the best, I can't wait to read another of his books!