A review by aromarrie
Tough Guy by Rachel Reid

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

never before could i have imagined giving this book the high rating that it really does deserve, but i just absolutely adored ryan & fabian’s povs…so much. the exploration of mental health, sex, and the burdening issues playing as intense of a sport as hockey is was very heavy, but it portrayed these two characters in a way that made me love them both; fabian in all his queerness and creativity in music, and ryan, who’s always been pushed to only use his fists on the ice in order to be deemed useful, but who’s so incredibly gentle and doesn’t care for any of the violence in hockey, who shows how much fun it could really be without that violence as we see him help some kids in this book who love just getting to play with each other. 

i admit this high rating didn’t come into play until after a relatively sobering reveal that occurs regarding a certain NHL player, but i just appreciated so much how much depth there was that the author was exploring here about the sport. i loved that as distant as it felt to both ryan & fabian (who has some prejudices towards hockey due to a lot of the bad experiences he’s associated with it growing up), it was in a way where it didn’t show  the camaraderie it brings among fans & teammates as we usually see in some hockey stories, but mainly the isolation it can bring to those pushed to the side or branded as some pariah. 

this book was just really well-written, and again, i really loved ryan & fabian, and all of fabian’s friends, and ryan’s friend, wyatt—there were some really good people in this book, and we even got to see ilya!! maybe he & ryan could have the friendship that i desired for ilya in the last book, but we’ll see :’) this was a good reading experience, that’s all for now. 
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