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A review by smartinez9
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
2.0
2.5? 3.5? You tell me.
I honestly have no idea what to rate this. On the one hand, I love the idea of a Lord Byron-esque debauched jaunt across Europe by an adorable queer couple and a caustic, aspiring surgeon of a little sister—on the other hand, Henry is the poster child for white male mediocrity. His sheer self-centeredness and inability to take other people’s feelings into account was mind-blowing. Maybe it would have been more understandable (given that his father certainly wasn’t fostering emotional maturity or healthy relationships) had he not continually refused to learn from his mistakes. Every time he realized he’d hurt Percy or Felicity, he doubled down and stormed off, somehow making his misbehavior their fault. Even when he seemed self-aware of his actions and his privilege, he continued to act like a child having a tantrum. While claiming to be in love Percy, Henry was careless with his emotions, playing around with his feelings and willfully misunderstanding Percy’s complicated position as an epileptic person of color in the British Empire. How he managed to make Percy’s seizures about himself remains a mystery to me, and his numerous insensitive comments to his BEST FRIEND (telling Percy to go serve drinks, asking him why he doesn’t just strike out on his own AS A BLACK MAN IN ACTUAL 18th CENTURY ENGLAND) were unbelievably grating. I hate miscommunication as a plot device in most cases, but the fact that most of the tension in Henry and Percy’s relationship was just due to Henry pouting and pushing him away made it even more unbearable. Why Felicity and Percy just kept forgiving him without any change is beyond me.
My second major point of contention was Henry’s alcohol consumption. I honestly can’t remember a time when the use of alcohol really bothered me in a book, but this took it waaaay over the line for me. I just don’t think it’s productive to depict a teen protagonist whose only tool for dealing with emotional conflict is to get completely trashed? Every time Henry has a negative thought about himself or hits any kind of roadblock in his relationships, his immediate reaction is to run away and drink until he forgets. His dependence on alcohol goes almost entirely unchallenged. His father and Mr. Lockwood are the only two who really try to get Henry to slow down, but since they’re intolerant assholes and their concern is over the family image, not Henry’s health, it doesn’t go very far. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with drinking in itself, but I think normalizing it as a solution for emotional distress instead of showing characters learning to talk out their feelings/reflect on and sit with their actions is not helpful, or healthy, especially for LQBTQ+ teenagers having a hard time. Given that Henry admits to serious suicidal ideation, which is already common for a lot of queer youth and strongly triggered by alcohol, I feel like his reliance on it should have been addressed, even just briefly by Felicity or Percy. He needs a safe place to process his trauma and tools to communicate, not more cognac.
Also, random plot hole: if they were locked in a storage hole for three days, how did they use the bathroom? I needed this addressed
All that aside, I enjoyed the book? I think? The switch between genres (period piece, swashbuckler, romance, fantasy) was jarring but kept me entertained, though I’m not sure if the inclusion of the supernatural was necessary or logical (...a naked woman in suspended animation stitched up like the creature in Frankenstein? Um. Okay?). I adored Percy and Felicity, the only two characters with common sense, and am interested in giving her next book a try.
I honestly have no idea what to rate this. On the one hand, I love the idea of a Lord Byron-esque debauched jaunt across Europe by an adorable queer couple and a caustic, aspiring surgeon of a little sister—on the other hand, Henry is the poster child for white male mediocrity. His sheer self-centeredness and inability to take other people’s feelings into account was mind-blowing. Maybe it would have been more understandable (given that his father certainly wasn’t fostering emotional maturity or healthy relationships) had he not continually refused to learn from his mistakes. Every time he realized he’d hurt Percy or Felicity, he doubled down and stormed off, somehow making his misbehavior their fault. Even when he seemed self-aware of his actions and his privilege, he continued to act like a child having a tantrum. While claiming to be in love Percy, Henry was careless with his emotions, playing around with his feelings and willfully misunderstanding Percy’s complicated position as an epileptic person of color in the British Empire. How he managed to make Percy’s seizures about himself remains a mystery to me, and his numerous insensitive comments to his BEST FRIEND (telling Percy to go serve drinks, asking him why he doesn’t just strike out on his own AS A BLACK MAN IN ACTUAL 18th CENTURY ENGLAND) were unbelievably grating. I hate miscommunication as a plot device in most cases, but the fact that most of the tension in Henry and Percy’s relationship was just due to Henry pouting and pushing him away made it even more unbearable. Why Felicity and Percy just kept forgiving him without any change is beyond me.
My second major point of contention was Henry’s alcohol consumption. I honestly can’t remember a time when the use of alcohol really bothered me in a book, but this took it waaaay over the line for me. I just don’t think it’s productive to depict a teen protagonist whose only tool for dealing with emotional conflict is to get completely trashed? Every time Henry has a negative thought about himself or hits any kind of roadblock in his relationships, his immediate reaction is to run away and drink until he forgets. His dependence on alcohol goes almost entirely unchallenged. His father and Mr. Lockwood are the only two who really try to get Henry to slow down, but since they’re intolerant assholes and their concern is over the family image, not Henry’s health, it doesn’t go very far. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with drinking in itself, but I think normalizing it as a solution for emotional distress instead of showing characters learning to talk out their feelings/reflect on and sit with their actions is not helpful, or healthy, especially for LQBTQ+ teenagers having a hard time. Given that Henry admits to serious suicidal ideation, which is already common for a lot of queer youth and strongly triggered by alcohol, I feel like his reliance on it should have been addressed, even just briefly by Felicity or Percy. He needs a safe place to process his trauma and tools to communicate, not more cognac.
Also, random plot hole: if they were locked in a storage hole for three days, how did they use the bathroom? I needed this addressed
All that aside, I enjoyed the book? I think? The switch between genres (period piece, swashbuckler, romance, fantasy) was jarring but kept me entertained, though I’m not sure if the inclusion of the supernatural was necessary or logical (...a naked woman in suspended animation stitched up like the creature in Frankenstein? Um. Okay?). I adored Percy and Felicity, the only two characters with common sense, and am interested in giving her next book a try.