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A review by katieswrld
Archer's Voice by Mia Sheridan
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
The premise of this book was good and everyone was hyping it up like crazy so I was excited to read it, but it was such a let down.
First of all, the beginning half of the book was painfully poorly written. It constantly was telling and not showing, (like another review said) Bree would constantly say “I did this” then “I did that”, for PARAGRAPHS at a time. It was so frequent that I couldn’t ignore it. It would also rely on telling the reader about characters’ pasts via huge chunks of dialogue from side characters that were then hardly spoken to afterwards. Lazy writing as a means of exposition. I didn’t notice it as much in the later-half of the book, so I believe the writer improved a little bit, but still. For a book this popular it was ridiculous.
Secondly, every single one of the characters was under-developed. Despite the copious amounts of trauma the author gave Bree and Archer, they hardly showed signs of it, and the little “ptsd flashbacks” Bree had clearly were not researched at all. Again, poorly written. Then once the two got together? Healed! Trauma never mentioned again. It felt disrespectful to people who actually experience trauma and ptsd. All of the side characters were just there as a means of interacting with Bree, none of them had their own purposes or personalities. Anne and Maggie were both the tropey “tearful surrogate mother” who overly referred to Bree as honey and covered for her when she was unavailable. (Also when Anne had that heart attack I actually laughed out loud, it was so laughably corny being in the middle of a sentence. And of course the focus was on how it affected Bree and Archer, not, you know, the old lady’s health condition) Travis practically disappeared from the book when he was no longer important to driving a wedge between Bree and Archer. Victoria Hale was clearly created out of the thought, “Okay, I need a bad guy.” She was a bitch in every sense of the word for no reason, and had perfectly manicured red nails and wore designer clothing bc of course she did 🙄 Cliche. I completely forgot who Liza and Merida (is that even their names?) were when they were mentioned later on bc again, they weren’t necessary to Bree so they disappeared.
Thirdly, the intimacy and spice scenes. I have no inherent problem with spice, but it got to a point where they were going at it like rabbits for no reason at all. It felt over done and I got sick of reading about it. Also, despite Archer’s shyness, Bree would force so much pda with him. The amount of time she “threw/wrapped” her arms around him at even the slightest prompting was insufferable. The oversaturation of physical affection in the story made it lose its meaning imo
Finally, Bree is a terribly “perfect” protagonist. She’s gorgeous in every way possible bc of course she is, everyone likes her and is there to help her/cover for her no matter the circumstances, and miraculously she’s never at the heart of the book’s conflicts. It’s always somebody else, she never has flaws and it’s annoyingly unrealistic. She’s meant to be bright and bubbly but it reads as insufferable. I refuse to believe that everyone in the world is willing to lay down at her feet bc she’s oh-so-wonderful. She doesn’t go through any character development at all, except for the trauma that suddenly disappears from her life the second she steps foot on Archer’s property. Every basic and cliche thing she says to Archer as a means of comforting him is somehow earth-shatteringly eye-opening. Also, “tears sprang to her eyes” about a million times over the course of the book. She would cry at every little thing; at one point later in the story she seriously teared up 8 separate times within the span of 5 or so pages, and every reference to her mentioned her wet eyes or whatever, it was absurd.
I wasn’t invested in the characters at all, and by the end I hardly even cared about Archer. They fell in love pretty much instantly, I didn’t feel the need to root for them at all. The “sad” part was cliche, as was the whole story. I wish something terrible would have actually happened, because then it would’ve maybe made the book felt like it had substance. I wanted to like this book so bad, because the concept of a mute love story that relied on sign language was extremely compelling. I’m really bummed the book didn’t do it justice :/
First of all, the beginning half of the book was painfully poorly written. It constantly was telling and not showing, (like another review said) Bree would constantly say “I did this” then “I did that”, for PARAGRAPHS at a time. It was so frequent that I couldn’t ignore it. It would also rely on telling the reader about characters’ pasts via huge chunks of dialogue from side characters that were then hardly spoken to afterwards. Lazy writing as a means of exposition. I didn’t notice it as much in the later-half of the book, so I believe the writer improved a little bit, but still. For a book this popular it was ridiculous.
Secondly, every single one of the characters was under-developed. Despite the copious amounts of trauma the author gave Bree and Archer, they hardly showed signs of it, and the little “ptsd flashbacks” Bree had clearly were not researched at all. Again, poorly written. Then once the two got together? Healed! Trauma never mentioned again. It felt disrespectful to people who actually experience trauma and ptsd. All of the side characters were just there as a means of interacting with Bree, none of them had their own purposes or personalities. Anne and Maggie were both the tropey “tearful surrogate mother” who overly referred to Bree as honey and covered for her when she was unavailable.
Thirdly, the intimacy and spice scenes. I have no inherent problem with spice, but it got to a point where they were going at it like rabbits for no reason at all. It felt over done and I got sick of reading about it. Also, despite Archer’s shyness, Bree would force so much pda with him. The amount of time she “threw/wrapped” her arms around him at even the slightest prompting was insufferable. The oversaturation of physical affection in the story made it lose its meaning imo
Finally, Bree is a terribly “perfect” protagonist. She’s gorgeous in every way possible bc of course she is, everyone likes her and is there to help her/cover for her no matter the circumstances, and miraculously she’s never at the heart of the book’s conflicts. It’s always somebody else, she never has flaws and it’s annoyingly unrealistic. She’s meant to be bright and bubbly but it reads as insufferable. I refuse to believe that everyone in the world is willing to lay down at her feet bc she’s oh-so-wonderful. She doesn’t go through any character development at all, except for the trauma that suddenly disappears from her life the second she steps foot on Archer’s property. Every basic and cliche thing she says to Archer as a means of comforting him is somehow earth-shatteringly eye-opening. Also, “tears sprang to her eyes” about a million times over the course of the book. She would cry at every little thing; at one point later in the story she seriously teared up 8 separate times within the span of 5 or so pages, and every reference to her mentioned her wet eyes or whatever, it was absurd.
I wasn’t invested in the characters at all, and by the end I hardly even cared about Archer. They fell in love pretty much instantly, I didn’t feel the need to root for them at all. The “sad” part was cliche, as was the whole story. I wish something terrible would have actually happened, because then it would’ve maybe made the book felt like it had substance. I wanted to like this book so bad, because the concept of a mute love story that relied on sign language was extremely compelling. I’m really bummed the book didn’t do it justice :/
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Gun violence and Sexual assault