Review by frogknitting - The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

frogknitting 's review for:

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

2.5

adventurous fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Upon moving into my new apartment, I realized I only had Toni Morrison's Paradise to read, and, telling my friend this and saying "I cannot handle that right now with all the stress I have, even though I really want to read it," they gave me this to read, saying it was absolutely a nothing book. Thanks, Bea!

This is one of those books that reeks of mid-2010s YA gay literature, that is, being that it hints at the gayness throughout but only allows itself to fully embrace it at the very end. There are a few scenes before that where they almost fuck and then end up fighting, which doesn't seem to be great for their prospects as a romantic couple. Another reason I can carbon-date this book is that it really feels like the author read some "how to write a [blank] character" guides and ran with it — she takes pains not to be Problematic that it feels a bit like a nothingburger book.

This book feels strange with regards to disability. It has the

"friend tries to cure disabled person, disabled person never wants to be cured, friend becomes disabled himself" trope (if the last part is a trope, but I don't know), and it feels like Monty becomes disabled in order to teach him a lesson, in a way. It's said he's beautiful even with the scarring, etc. etc., but it feels somewhat objectifying and using disability as a punishment, even while the characters are trying their damndest to refute it.

Having characters say "Nooo this doesn't fit that trope!" doesn't make the trope not there. I'm sure someone else could have a better analysis of this, but these are my surface-level thoughts about it.

Can't stand Monty. For a character who is supposed to be charming and lovely, he just felt very bland to me. I appreciated that his inner monologue was entirely different from the way he presented himself, but the way he presented himself still didn't feel as overly charming and dramatic as everyone described it. Felicity was good, I enjoyed having her there. She didn't fulfill the trope of "women who cannot move beyond their station but want to be doctors, etc. but have no personality beyond that." Percy was kind of flat for me.

The whole point of the book was getting a cure for his epilepsy (see above) but he did still feel a bit like a vehicle for Monty's own development, which is a real shame given he's the only major POC besides Scipio in the book.

Didn't know what this book was going into it, making the twist pretty effective.

The prose was okay, but sometimes I just had no idea where we were and it skipped around setting-wise. The pacing was extremely fast. I kept wondering if this book was just a way to write off a European vacation for tax purposes.

Content Warnings