A review by wardenred
All Hail the Underdogs by E.L. Massey

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Look,” he snaps. “I just want to be alone for, like, five minutes, okay? Take a fucking hint.”
“Okay,” Damien agrees placidly. “Do you actually want to be alone though? Or do you feel like you have to be?”
“The hell does that even—”
“Hey,” Damien says. “If you need to be a dick to me right now, that’s okay. If you need me to leave you alone, I will. But don’t make me leave because you feel like you’re not allowed to have feelings in front of other people.”

Technically, this is the third installment in the Breakaway series, but the main characters change here and the connections to the first two books are honestly minimal, so this felt more like a standalone. On one hand, that was a bit of a disappointment because I love Alex and Eli from books 1-2 so, so much and I would have loved to see them and Alex’s teammates again rather than just get a vague mention. On the other hand, the absence of my old faves let me focus on Rome and Damien more, and now I have new faves, because damn, these two broken boys absolutely ruined me. I smiled, I felt teary-eyed, I was mad and frustrated, I got cozy and content—this book was an emotional ride, start to finish, in all the absolute best ways. 

My favorite part was almost definitely Rome’s entire journey toward learning to let people in. The first time he asked others for help I literally cheered out loud, because the author conveyed so well just how hard it was for him to do it. His initial abrasiveness was described with such raw compassion, it was obvious that he was hurting inside and unequipped for dealing with kindness. When you’ve gone without for long enough, kindness *hurts*, so it was so understandable why he tried to protect himself from the pain. But as understandable as it was, I absolutely ached for Damien whose best intentions kept getting rejected—and I was so happy when they started to gradually, realistically, bit by bit find mutual understanding. And that understanding morphing into feelings? Chef’s kiss.

Then again, maybe my favorite part is Damien’s relationship with poetry and words and how he was constantly trying to process his feelings through his art. Or maybe it’s the way the book does away with toxic masculinity and initiates some great discussion about the intersections of marginalizations and privileges. Or maybe it’s the awesome found family vibe and how the group dynamic unfolds around the central relationship. Or the parts where they visit each other’s homes, and how the descriptions of those places subtly add to the characterization. Or every part where listening to music was involved, especially since the characters’ playlist have so much in common with mine.

Gah. So many strengths, so many favorite parts. But to bring up some weaknesses, too—there was definitely too little sports in this sports romance. Like… I never doubted Damien’s poetry was super important to him and wasn’t surprised to see him lean toward it over hockey. And I got the feeling that Rome’s relationship with hockey, in turn, was supposed to be kind of like that, too: his thing, something that helps him process, gives him meaning. There were absolutely attempts to present it that way, but in the end, they fell a bit flat. Maybe hockey’s just a thing Rome’s been doing because that’s the one good, fun thing he’s encountered so far, he doesn’t realize he’s got choices (and realistically speaking, being dirt-poor, doesn’t have *immediate* choices), it’s his ticket to a better life in the future because he’s talented, etc. Maybe he’d prefer to be doing something else and just doesn’t know it.

I’ve been thinking about why I perceive it that way, because there definitely were attempts to both show and tell that Rome loves hockey, and I think the problem is that there are no key scenes that involve it, the kind that would strongly drive the plot/relationship/personal arcs forward. There are such scenes that involve Damien and poetry, but all the hockey just happens very much in the background. All the important beats are hit outside of it. The whole gang could have been playing basketball or baseball instead, or just been gifted kids in a special program, or whatever. Hockey doesn’t hold that much meaning within the plot, so I find it hard to buy that it holds so much meaning for the character. 

There’s another thing that didn’t sit well with me, though it’s less a weakness and more a matter of preference: the whole Finley subplot in the second half. It made me a bit uncomfortable. Unlike the first two books that are firmly NA, this one is YA, with characters being teens not yet out of high school, and the idea that they would suddenly
decide they want to be parents ASAP when they had trouble talking about holding hands just weeks ago… Idk, it made pretty little sense. Like, yeah, I get why Rome felt so attached to his newborn sister, and it made perfect sense for him to want to be a part of her life. But wanting to adopt her, when he’s freshly emancipated, hasn’t had a real childhood, has had super limited life experiences due to growing up poor in an abusive situation, and all in all, when he’s just a kid dealing with plenty? That didn’t feel like a healthy decision, and it didn’t feel healthy on Damien’s part to get so attached to the idea, either. Both of them struggle with different types of abandonment issues, and I feel like they just projected those issues on Finley and the adults around them should have been more concerned rather than going all “Awwwww.” Yes, there was some discussion around this choice and the logistics of it and how to best make it work, but it didn’t convince me that it was a reasonable choice in the first place. I think both guys should have first figured out their individual lives and their relationship and whether each of them is truly “the one” to the other. Because I ship them a lot, but also, they’re seventeen/eighteen. Everything can feel so all-encompassing and forever in that age; not everything is.


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