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A review by readingautistic
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
3.0
So disappointed that this was a 2.5 star book.
Ugh. The premise of this book was not something that excited me but I’ve enjoyed McQuiston’s previous outings so much I thought the writing or characters or some other thing had a good chance of making up for it. Alas. Now, to be fair this is at least partly a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”. The endless descriptions of things being consumed did absolutely nothing for me, I enjoy neither wine nor trying new foods, shout out to autistic sensory issues, so it was starting at a disadvantage. And frankly, I think I’m just too ace for this book. Like sir, put that peach down!
But beyond that, I also just didn’t really care about the relationship. I liked Kit well enough I guess, damning with faint praise a bit there, so switching to his POV halfway definitely marked an upswing in my enjoyment, because Theo was really starting to get on my nerves by that point. Like I get that you want to prove you’re more than just a nepo-baby but you come from capital M Money, I don’t feel bad that you made bad business decisions and you’ve got credit card debt, like babe, your sister casually offered you 50k or more! I should have been giggling and kicking my feet for these two to finally get back together, I was instead wondering why they should.
Some positives though! Um, I thought the exploration of Theo’s gender was good, always nice to get some more non binary characters. The Calums’ side story did make me laugh once or twice. Liked seeing some love for The Silmarillion. And McQuiston’s writing is solid still and I will continue to pick up their stuff. I didn’t hate this book, but it was frustrating and in the end left me with a feeling of little more than yep, that sure was a book I just read.
Ugh. The premise of this book was not something that excited me but I’ve enjoyed McQuiston’s previous outings so much I thought the writing or characters or some other thing had a good chance of making up for it. Alas. Now, to be fair this is at least partly a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”. The endless descriptions of things being consumed did absolutely nothing for me, I enjoy neither wine nor trying new foods, shout out to autistic sensory issues, so it was starting at a disadvantage. And frankly, I think I’m just too ace for this book. Like sir, put that peach down!
But beyond that, I also just didn’t really care about the relationship. I liked Kit well enough I guess, damning with faint praise a bit there, so switching to his POV halfway definitely marked an upswing in my enjoyment, because Theo was really starting to get on my nerves by that point. Like I get that you want to prove you’re more than just a nepo-baby but you come from capital M Money, I don’t feel bad that you made bad business decisions and you’ve got credit card debt, like babe, your sister casually offered you 50k or more! I should have been giggling and kicking my feet for these two to finally get back together, I was instead wondering why they should.
Some positives though! Um, I thought the exploration of Theo’s gender was good, always nice to get some more non binary characters. The Calums’ side story did make me laugh once or twice. Liked seeing some love for The Silmarillion. And McQuiston’s writing is solid still and I will continue to pick up their stuff. I didn’t hate this book, but it was frustrating and in the end left me with a feeling of little more than yep, that sure was a book I just read.