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elixsium 's review for:
Icebreaker
by Hannah Grace
This book was so bad it's genuinely impressive.
I have so many things to criticize I don't think I can write them all down, but I'll try anyway.
The writing is overall just bad. First person povs are not something I particularly enjoy, and this book was not an exception. It was BAD. Their inner monologues are overall annoying and they're always pointing out stuff to make sure the audience knows they're your perfectly healthy, woke people, even though their actions speak otherwise.
I lost it when Nathan was telling Stacy about his abusive father and then he added "but I know these are just first world problems and I am incredibly privileged". Like let's be for real for a second, who the fuck would ever say that? The whole book has these constant moments where the characters go out of their way to make sure they assure the audience they're feminist, allies, inclusive and all, because clearly their actions actually never speak for them. Most of the time these parts made me laugh out loud because of how ridiculous they were. They sound chronically online to a degree I didn't think was even possible.
To remain on this topic, there was a an attempt at making the characters inclusive and diverse, which badly failed. One character is in a wheelchair, but that gets mentioned at the start of the book and never brought up again. Some characters are gay or belonging to minorities, but it's never addressed and just mentioned, like the author is trying to show us how cool and diverse her cast is. At the end of the day though, the female mc is a blonde with blue eyes and the male mc is your stereotypical white boy.
And talking about the mcs... lord, where should I begin.
Anastasia was deeply unlikable. She tries so hard to be cool and different, and even in Nathan's pov she is always referred to as this edgy, cool girl... but she isn't. it's all tell but not show. They're supposed to be "enemies", but the enemies factor is nowhere to be found. Anastasia is just a bitch towards him at the start and the rest of the book goes on acting like those two mean things she said make them enemies. They do not, she's just an asshole and rude for no reason to a guy who was trying to be nice. And when it comes to Nathan... he did have half of the chapter to himself, but he still doesn't feel like the mc. even his chapters were
more about Anastasia than Anastasia's ones were about him. He however is annoying.
There are definitely too many characters and while the author tried to give all of them a story, it failed. Halfway through the book we lose Lola, Liv and the guy Stacy was fucking at the beginning and who I now forgot the name of. Then we lose Aaron for like, the whole center of the book. Also, aren't they uni students? why are they NEVER in class??? The boys™ are also annoying. The whole Lola and Stacy going to live with them felt like one of those Wattpad fics where the mc gets adopted by BTS or One Direction or some stuff like that. They all care too much about Stacy for absolutely no reason at all, considering she does NOT care for them in the same way.
In the book, every character's life somehow seems to be revolving around Stacy, as if she's some incredible woman that deserves all the attention. but the issues is that she's simply not. She's rude for no reason, she's overly dramatic about everything, and she's extremely self-centered. The whole book tries so hard to make her look like one of those "not like other mcs" girl but it fails, making her exactly like the others.
Her relationship with Nathan is incredibly boring. They're just having sex all the time, and it's badly written too. I don't know how people are rating this book to be "spicy" and all. I don't usually read this kind of stuff, but the "spicy" parts were so fucking bad it was hilarious. I had to hold my laugh because of how badly written and ridiculous they were. They're just so? plain? and boring? they're supposed to be super hot because the mcs are (other thing, I'm so tired of mcs being always super models and never having a single flaw. what happened to normal people), but they're just extremely plain and awkward.
Aaron is such a badly written character it's insane. He does stuff just to do it, and it's so clear the author does NOT know how to write conflict at all. It's shown with Stacy and Nate, it's shown in how Aaron behaves. She just made him evil and unreasonable to give the plot some sort of movement, but his character is so bland and empty and lacks motivation it's insane. Why does he just do all that stuff? Why does he hate Nathan like he killed his mother or smt? No reasonable person would ever do that.
There's so much telling and never showing. The characters say things, but their actions never show it.
The whole book in general came off as a plotless mess, with too many characters and as a clear attempt from the writer to collect as many booktok tropes as possible to appeal the readers. Which is what books nowadays do, and it ends up with empty characters doing stuff for no reason just to fulfill the trope the author wants them to have. The whole book is an example of that. They're quite literally playing family, not actually caring for each other and just acting in a way that makes them look like a perfect friend group, couple or family, more for the look of it rather than the substance.
If I could give this book 0 stars, I would.
I have so many things to criticize I don't think I can write them all down, but I'll try anyway.
The writing is overall just bad. First person povs are not something I particularly enjoy, and this book was not an exception. It was BAD. Their inner monologues are overall annoying and they're always pointing out stuff to make sure the audience knows they're your perfectly healthy, woke people, even though their actions speak otherwise.
I lost it when Nathan was telling Stacy about his abusive father and then he added "but I know these are just first world problems and I am incredibly privileged". Like let's be for real for a second, who the fuck would ever say that? The whole book has these constant moments where the characters go out of their way to make sure they assure the audience they're feminist, allies, inclusive and all, because clearly their actions actually never speak for them. Most of the time these parts made me laugh out loud because of how ridiculous they were. They sound chronically online to a degree I didn't think was even possible.
To remain on this topic, there was a an attempt at making the characters inclusive and diverse, which badly failed. One character is in a wheelchair, but that gets mentioned at the start of the book and never brought up again. Some characters are gay or belonging to minorities, but it's never addressed and just mentioned, like the author is trying to show us how cool and diverse her cast is. At the end of the day though, the female mc is a blonde with blue eyes and the male mc is your stereotypical white boy.
And talking about the mcs... lord, where should I begin.
Anastasia was deeply unlikable. She tries so hard to be cool and different, and even in Nathan's pov she is always referred to as this edgy, cool girl... but she isn't. it's all tell but not show. They're supposed to be "enemies", but the enemies factor is nowhere to be found. Anastasia is just a bitch towards him at the start and the rest of the book goes on acting like those two mean things she said make them enemies. They do not, she's just an asshole and rude for no reason to a guy who was trying to be nice. And when it comes to Nathan... he did have half of the chapter to himself, but he still doesn't feel like the mc. even his chapters were
more about Anastasia than Anastasia's ones were about him. He however is annoying.
There are definitely too many characters and while the author tried to give all of them a story, it failed. Halfway through the book we lose Lola, Liv and the guy Stacy was fucking at the beginning and who I now forgot the name of. Then we lose Aaron for like, the whole center of the book. Also, aren't they uni students? why are they NEVER in class??? The boys™ are also annoying. The whole Lola and Stacy going to live with them felt like one of those Wattpad fics where the mc gets adopted by BTS or One Direction or some stuff like that. They all care too much about Stacy for absolutely no reason at all, considering she does NOT care for them in the same way.
In the book, every character's life somehow seems to be revolving around Stacy, as if she's some incredible woman that deserves all the attention. but the issues is that she's simply not. She's rude for no reason, she's overly dramatic about everything, and she's extremely self-centered. The whole book tries so hard to make her look like one of those "not like other mcs" girl but it fails, making her exactly like the others.
Her relationship with Nathan is incredibly boring. They're just having sex all the time, and it's badly written too. I don't know how people are rating this book to be "spicy" and all. I don't usually read this kind of stuff, but the "spicy" parts were so fucking bad it was hilarious. I had to hold my laugh because of how badly written and ridiculous they were. They're just so? plain? and boring? they're supposed to be super hot because the mcs are (other thing, I'm so tired of mcs being always super models and never having a single flaw. what happened to normal people), but they're just extremely plain and awkward.
Aaron is such a badly written character it's insane. He does stuff just to do it, and it's so clear the author does NOT know how to write conflict at all. It's shown with Stacy and Nate, it's shown in how Aaron behaves. She just made him evil and unreasonable to give the plot some sort of movement, but his character is so bland and empty and lacks motivation it's insane. Why does he just do all that stuff? Why does he hate Nathan like he killed his mother or smt? No reasonable person would ever do that.
There's so much telling and never showing. The characters say things, but their actions never show it.
The whole book in general came off as a plotless mess, with too many characters and as a clear attempt from the writer to collect as many booktok tropes as possible to appeal the readers. Which is what books nowadays do, and it ends up with empty characters doing stuff for no reason just to fulfill the trope the author wants them to have. The whole book is an example of that. They're quite literally playing family, not actually caring for each other and just acting in a way that makes them look like a perfect friend group, couple or family, more for the look of it rather than the substance.
If I could give this book 0 stars, I would.