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A review by jashanac
The Favorites by Layne Fargo
Enjoyment/Appreciation Level: Upper range.
TL;DR:
Not a new fave, not something I see myself re-reading, but a freaking drama-filled page turner that was an entertaining good time. Also, notttttt a romance, in my opinion. (That Wuthering Heights comp is accurate haha - toxic hot mess express)
Summary:
Two kids who grew up with rough lives (in different ways) come together to ice skate together, training to become champions. Kate and Heath are toxic together, and their relationship drama creates drama in their ice dancing careers which culminates in a big scandal. We see all of this play out between Kate telling her side of the story, and snippets from a documentary released 10 years after, with interviews from peers and others in the ice dancing industry.
Ideal Reader:
If you can get behind a messy, immature, toxic relationship dynamic... following people in a highly competitive, cutthroat sport... with lots of drama and nonsense... you'll probably have a fun time with this.
Writing:
The authorial voice wasn't striking or anything -- serviceable writing to tell this story and keep it moving along. No issues for me with sentence structure and what-not.
Characters:
I might be alone in liking Ellis Dean a lot - hahaha. I thought he was ridiculous, messy, and FUN! In a book like this, severely Wuthering Heights coded, these characters aren't supposed to be nice, kind, good, enjoyable humans.
Heath really freaking sucks, my god. Dude just SAY WORDS! SAY HOW YOU FEEL EVER! So possessive and immature. Very Heathcliff coded haha
Not that Kat is a lot better! They're both just ridiculously toxic and Kat is incredibly abrasive... but I also kinda liked her, as an individual. I liked her "fuck it, and fuck off" energy.
There isn't immense depth with them, particularly with Heath -- we probably could have truly gotten to know them a bit better, but I was satisfied with the level of depth here, for what this story was (to me).
Plot/Pacing:
I couldn't put the dang book down. The structure of it, with the interview snippets interspersed throughout really kept my interest. I was itching to know what happened!
With the actual ending and the reveal of what the scandal was... I have to say, I was a little bit underwhelmed. I was fully expectinga more violent scandal. Not that what happened wasn't a scandal. But the lead up had me thinking it was going to be something fucking WILD. There was definitely some subtle foreshadowing earlier on in the book, before there was a bit more obvious foreshadowing JUST before the reveal, and I liked how that element was done. But yeah, kind of wanted something different for the ending.
Themes:
Competitive sports and the nature of elite athletic competition -- the rivalries, cutthroat nature, and pressure put on the athletes. Pressure. Ambition. Toxic obsessive love. Finding true happiness and satisfaction with life.
TL;DR:
Not a new fave, not something I see myself re-reading, but a freaking drama-filled page turner that was an entertaining good time. Also, notttttt a romance, in my opinion. (That Wuthering Heights comp is accurate haha - toxic hot mess express)
Summary:
Two kids who grew up with rough lives (in different ways) come together to ice skate together, training to become champions. Kate and Heath are toxic together, and their relationship drama creates drama in their ice dancing careers which culminates in a big scandal. We see all of this play out between Kate telling her side of the story, and snippets from a documentary released 10 years after, with interviews from peers and others in the ice dancing industry.
Ideal Reader:
If you can get behind a messy, immature, toxic relationship dynamic... following people in a highly competitive, cutthroat sport... with lots of drama and nonsense... you'll probably have a fun time with this.
Writing:
The authorial voice wasn't striking or anything -- serviceable writing to tell this story and keep it moving along. No issues for me with sentence structure and what-not.
Characters:
I might be alone in liking Ellis Dean a lot - hahaha. I thought he was ridiculous, messy, and FUN! In a book like this, severely Wuthering Heights coded, these characters aren't supposed to be nice, kind, good, enjoyable humans.
Heath really freaking sucks, my god. Dude just SAY WORDS! SAY HOW YOU FEEL EVER! So possessive and immature. Very Heathcliff coded haha
Not that Kat is a lot better! They're both just ridiculously toxic and Kat is incredibly abrasive... but I also kinda liked her, as an individual. I liked her "fuck it, and fuck off" energy.
There isn't immense depth with them, particularly with Heath -- we probably could have truly gotten to know them a bit better, but I was satisfied with the level of depth here, for what this story was (to me).
Plot/Pacing:
I couldn't put the dang book down. The structure of it, with the interview snippets interspersed throughout really kept my interest. I was itching to know what happened!
With the actual ending and the reveal of what the scandal was... I have to say, I was a little bit underwhelmed. I was fully expecting
Themes:
Competitive sports and the nature of elite athletic competition -- the rivalries, cutthroat nature, and pressure put on the athletes. Pressure. Ambition. Toxic obsessive love. Finding true happiness and satisfaction with life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Physical abuse, Death of parent
Minor: Blood, Abortion