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A review by emfass
Sweatpants Season by Danielle Allen
challenging
dark
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Picked this one up because one of my favorite romance authors, Rebekah Weatherspoon, reviewed it on Goodreads and really liked it. Bummed to say I did NOT like this book, and thought about DNFing it multiple times, but was curious about the point it was trying to make about toxic masculinity and complicity, and wondered if it would do so effectively by the end.
I just....did not enjoy myself. The writing was not very good. Yes, I was glad to have representation and discussion of these important topics, and will admit the sex scenes were pretty smokin', but didn't think it fully accomplished what it set out to do. I was pretty frustrated with Carlos, as he seemed to really listen to and respect Akila, and also his asks for consent were pretty great, but he was so unaware of and complicit in the dangerous and harmful behavior of his friends. I think maybe that was the point of his arc, but I was just NOT HERE FOR IT.
Oh, and I was a little put off by the details offered to us every time Akila got dressed up to go out. Like, we knew exactly what she was wearing every single day. Which...fine, I guess? There were just other parts of this story that I cared about way more and wished as much attention had been paid to those.
If you are looking for any amount of escapism and/or smut, I encourage you to look elsewhere. This book did NOT offer an escape for me: toxic masculinity was ever-present in the heroine's day-to-day experiences, not in a way that helped me feel seen but really just stressed me out.
I just....did not enjoy myself. The writing was not very good. Yes, I was glad to have representation and discussion of these important topics, and will admit the sex scenes were pretty smokin', but didn't think it fully accomplished what it set out to do. I was pretty frustrated with Carlos, as he seemed to really listen to and respect Akila, and also his asks for consent were pretty great, but he was so unaware of and complicit in the dangerous and harmful behavior of his friends. I think maybe that was the point of his arc, but I was just NOT HERE FOR IT.
Oh, and I was a little put off by the details offered to us every time Akila got dressed up to go out. Like, we knew exactly what she was wearing every single day. Which...fine, I guess? There were just other parts of this story that I cared about way more and wished as much attention had been paid to those.
If you are looking for any amount of escapism and/or smut, I encourage you to look elsewhere. This book did NOT offer an escape for me: toxic masculinity was ever-present in the heroine's day-to-day experiences, not in a way that helped me feel seen but really just stressed me out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content