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A review by parasolcrafter
Golden Boys by Phil Stamper
emotional
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
this book is...fine. its not really anything special, but its not bad, either. that being said, i do have quite a bit to say about it.
first things first, the pacing SUCKS. i had quite a hard time figuring out how time was passing (frustrating, considering this book takes place over a 3-month period) and as such it made a lot of the development in relationships feel very rushed :/ at one point, one of the characters mentions him and his friends have only been a part for a week, but the next chapter - without a mention of time passing - a different character says he's been doing his job for weeks, which could only be a typo but for me it made me think a bunch of time has passed without it being mentioned. also, overall it really doesnt feel like 3 months pass during the book; a most, it feels like a month, maybe. like...just not much happens? all the chapters are fairly short and, spread between 4 characters, that doesnt leave a lot room for anything :/ only some of the character development feels deserved, and its more or less only for sal and reese. gabe feels like he only changes because the author says so; a lot of his development seems to happen behind the scenes, which just reads wrong since he changes the most. for the pacing, i wish the book had been structured differently. since there's 4 characters, i think it would have been cool to have each month broken into four chapters, each spanning a week with each character getting their own part. it would have flowed better and made us miss the characters more. really...the pacing makes it all fall flat.
next...i dont like how the relationships worked out, especially with gabe and sal. they ended up feeling like SUCH a hollow friendship because their 'relationship' didnt seem to matter to either of them? idk, they just had such a strange dynamic, with sal especially seeming like nothing matters to him. i also didnt like matt at ALL. hes just SUCH a non-characters; hes literally only there so gabe has someone to like, and it was so annoying they got together in the end. it just didnt make sense to me. and reese and heath...they were fine, but nothing special. overall the characters just fell flat to me. they had so much potential, but it didnt lead to anything, which really is a shame.
further on the characters, theyre all so bland and fairly similar, especially sal and reese. despite the book being told in first person from all the boys, none of them had a distinct voice or personality. their personalities were more or less told to us by the other characters, but it didnt translate very well to their chapters, and it feels like we only know them all on a very surface level. i also dont like the way reese & heath and sal & gabe mirrored each other beat for beat. the chapters where they switch POV's just read as very lazy and i found those 2 chapters annoying and tedious to read; it was essentially the same chapter twice.
i wish this book had just gone a little bit deeper with everything because it was interesting, but it could have been much, much better.
first things first, the pacing SUCKS. i had quite a hard time figuring out how time was passing (frustrating, considering this book takes place over a 3-month period) and as such it made a lot of the development in relationships feel very rushed :/ at one point, one of the characters mentions him and his friends have only been a part for a week, but the next chapter - without a mention of time passing - a different character says he's been doing his job for weeks, which could only be a typo but for me it made me think a bunch of time has passed without it being mentioned. also, overall it really doesnt feel like 3 months pass during the book; a most, it feels like a month, maybe. like...just not much happens? all the chapters are fairly short and, spread between 4 characters, that doesnt leave a lot room for anything :/ only some of the character development feels deserved, and its more or less only for sal and reese. gabe feels like he only changes because the author says so; a lot of his development seems to happen behind the scenes, which just reads wrong since he changes the most. for the pacing, i wish the book had been structured differently. since there's 4 characters, i think it would have been cool to have each month broken into four chapters, each spanning a week with each character getting their own part. it would have flowed better and made us miss the characters more. really...the pacing makes it all fall flat.
next...i dont like how the relationships worked out, especially with gabe and sal. they ended up feeling like SUCH a hollow friendship because their 'relationship' didnt seem to matter to either of them? idk, they just had such a strange dynamic, with sal especially seeming like nothing matters to him. i also didnt like matt at ALL. hes just SUCH a non-characters; hes literally only there so gabe has someone to like, and it was so annoying they got together in the end. it just didnt make sense to me. and reese and heath...they were fine, but nothing special. overall the characters just fell flat to me. they had so much potential, but it didnt lead to anything, which really is a shame.
further on the characters, theyre all so bland and fairly similar, especially sal and reese. despite the book being told in first person from all the boys, none of them had a distinct voice or personality. their personalities were more or less told to us by the other characters, but it didnt translate very well to their chapters, and it feels like we only know them all on a very surface level. i also dont like the way reese & heath and sal & gabe mirrored each other beat for beat. the chapters where they switch POV's just read as very lazy and i found those 2 chapters annoying and tedious to read; it was essentially the same chapter twice.
i wish this book had just gone a little bit deeper with everything because it was interesting, but it could have been much, much better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing and Homophobia
Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, and Mental illness
Minor: Sexual content