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mikalouisexo 's review for:
Keeping 13
by Chloe Walsh
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Unfortunately I did not love these. B13 and K13 review in one.
Now I read these books back to back in about 2 days, so I’m combining these reviews into one.
Binding 13 and Keeping 13.. you could have been great. I found the pacing of these books quite slow. Definitely could have been 300 ish pages less. 1,600+ pages for these 2 books is way toooo much. I couldn’t deal with the continual mentions of how small Shannon is (which yes I understand is because she is malnourished - which definitely could have been explained better in the books) but the way it is explained is icky. Its always typically from Jonnys POV which is making her to to be the small, petite, breakable little baby (because YES the age gap is suchhhh a big problem for Jonny, ick) while Jonny is made out to be this big bad rugby player that fucks and fucks with all these older women (YES WOMEN BC APPARENTLY HE FUCKS ADULTS ALL WHILE BEING 17, EW - I feel like this could have been fleshed out properly and less ickily with the adults actually facing consequences) and consistently having to read how much Jonny needs to eat and the calories he needs to consume. I was so not emotionally connected and involved in these characters at all, I felt more of a connection with the side character than the main characters. Idk if it’s because I’m a little desensitised to some of the heavy content warnings in these books but I just couldn’t emotionally find any connection with the story at all. I tried both audiobook and physical books to see if that would help and I fear it made it worse.
Now I read these books back to back in about 2 days, so I’m combining these reviews into one.
Binding 13 and Keeping 13.. you could have been great. I found the pacing of these books quite slow. Definitely could have been 300 ish pages less. 1,600+ pages for these 2 books is way toooo much. I couldn’t deal with the continual mentions of how small Shannon is (which yes I understand is because she is malnourished - which definitely could have been explained better in the books) but the way it is explained is icky. Its always typically from Jonnys POV which is making her to to be the small, petite, breakable little baby (because YES the age gap is suchhhh a big problem for Jonny, ick) while Jonny is made out to be this big bad rugby player that fucks and fucks with all these older women (YES WOMEN BC APPARENTLY HE FUCKS ADULTS ALL WHILE BEING 17, EW - I feel like this could have been fleshed out properly and less ickily with the adults actually facing consequences) and consistently having to read how much Jonny needs to eat and the calories he needs to consume. I was so not emotionally connected and involved in these characters at all, I felt more of a connection with the side character than the main characters. Idk if it’s because I’m a little desensitised to some of the heavy content warnings in these books but I just couldn’t emotionally find any connection with the story at all. I tried both audiobook and physical books to see if that would help and I fear it made it worse.