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A review by naniisbookcorner
Unfix me by Emory Weste
emotional
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
AUTHOR ➵ Emory Weste
STAR RATING ➵ ★★★★★
𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓 ↴
💚Found Family
✨Gay Awakening
💚No 3rd Act Breakup
✨Golden Retriever/Sunshine
𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒 ↴
This book is the first book of interconnected standalones and I need book two PRONTO.
This book follows Seneca & Malachi’s story and their upbringings couldn’t have been more different. You have Seneca, the sweetest boy that has been made to believe that being who he is, is wrong… The boy has been lied to and has gone through so much at the hands of those who were supposed to protect him the most. And then there’s Malachi, a boy with the biggest heart and loving and supportive parents, parents that have been preparing him for the inevitable with his father’s disease.
This book was so amazing, one of the few books to bring me to tears in the middle of the night. There was nothing that I couldn’t love about this story, except for maybe (not maybe, definitely) Sen’s parents & the sad excuse of a therapist his father was forcing him to go to. The anger I felt towards the toxic people in Sen’s life should be studied, if I could punch someone through a book I absolutely would. They deserve the worst and I was praying for an accident to happen with his parents just so he didn’t have to deal with their hatred, ambushes and manipulations anymore.
“𝑩𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒆’𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍, 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒈𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒄, 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒘 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅” - 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐀𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐫
When I tell you Kai had me kicking my freaking feet when he found out about the hell his man was put through in the conversion camp, I am not joking. I was living for it! I LOVED how patient and understanding Kai was of Sen's situation. Kai was very publicly gay and I know it was hard for him to suppress his feelings for Sen when they were in public. I loved that he didn’t push him into it and was willing to wait until Sen was ready.
“𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆.’ 𝑵𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒊𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒋𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒔. 𝑴𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒚𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅, 𝑲𝒂𝒊, 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝑰’𝒗𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒎, 𝒚𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔.” - 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫
I was waiting for him to stand up to his family, how dare they try to ambush him on his christmas vacation. The man is better than me because I would’ve slept at the bus stop the minute they tried to control who I spoke to. Matter of fact I wouldn’t have even shown up knowing the way they felt about his sexuality and their conditions.
“𝑰𝒇 𝑲𝒂𝒊 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒉𝒆’𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕. 𝑺𝒐 𝒈𝒐 𝒂𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅, 𝒑𝒐𝒑𝒔. 𝑯𝒊𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏’𝒕 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒎.” - 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞
The friendships that were formed were so wholesome. West might be my favorite, he wasn’t afraid to “square up”, the man tried solving everything with fists and it was hilarious. The way he didn’t hesitate to take punches for Sen did me in (happy tears of course). Sen truly found a family away from his parents and that made me extremely happy.
“𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒚 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝑲𝒂𝒊. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑰 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒇𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰’𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆.” - 𝐄𝐥𝐢 𝐀𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐫 (𝐊𝐚𝐢’𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫)
This story did hit a little close to home. I was not ready for the tears the scenes between Kai and his father caused. I really felt for Kai–understanding how hard it is to have such a close relative with Alzheimer’s and to have them not remember you is the worst. I appreciated that he had people in his corner that would help him through it.
“𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤?”
I absolutely would. It was so well written, I wish I could read it again for the first time.
𝐓𝐖 ↴
Conversion therapy, disownment & parental rejection, prejudice pertaining to sexual orientation, explicit sexual content between men, child endangerment (forced conversion scenarios, emotional abuse, some physical abuse, etc.), stereotyping (in both a joking way and serious context), alzheimer’s disease/ill parent, depression, anxiety & mild suicidal ideation, self-hatred, internal shame, repression, profanity, some violence.
𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐑 ↴
As always, although this is an E-ARC, my thoughts are my own and this is my honest review. Thank you to Emory Weste & BookSprout for the ARC opportunity.
☽ 𝑯𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 ✨🖤
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆