starfilled_bookshelf 's review for:

Alex & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz

1.0

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This book makes me angry. Not because it's a YA re-telling of how Alexander Hamilton met Eliza Schuyler but because it's so poorly researched. I’m a history major who has the major interest in the American Revolution. So learning about the war, and the people who played either central roles or roles in general, comes as a second nature. Also being a history major alone means I spend a lot of my time researching and I understand how researching can get. But if you’re writing a historical fiction novel, especially it being 2017 with the resources available at a click of a button, YOU HAVE TO RESEARCH. I get that writing historical fiction facts get bent a bit to make the story work or make drama happen or whatever but you still need to sit down and research. And getting your facts from a musical that has already messed with the facts to fit the narrative being told is not researching. That’s being lazy. This book has so many blatant mistakes in the narrative, of not even their love story, but of lives of the characters and the events of the American Revolution. The author does not care about the characterization of these historical figures, she erases their sexualities and has no respect for history and historical fact. I could over look some things but when I reached the chapter where Alexander Hamilton

Spoiler

finds out that Benedict Arnold is a traitor, has given the plans of West Point to Andre, he doesn’t act until 6 months later to still make sure we hung Andre in October and just erases the achievements of the Culper Spy Ring and Benjamin Tallmadge

I honestly couldn’t sit any longer with the book. Please do not read this book and find another historical fiction book with an author that actually cares about fact and the figures.