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A review by laelyn
One for All by Lillie Lainoff
3.0
Lillie Lainoff's debut novel "One for All" has all the things one could want from a fun, historical ya: musketeers, strong women, pretty scenery and both wlw and disability rep. Sounds awesome, so I was actually excited to read this. Especially considering this is an ownvoices novel, with our protagonist Tania suffering from the same chronic illness the author does, and one I honestly haven't heard of before. This is also were the story shines, while in mostly every other regard it turned out to be kind of mediocre.
The writing is approachable and it's a quick read, there are no pacing issues, it's a well enough crafted novel. The one thing I can criticize about the writing is probably one of my biggest pet peeves ever: This story takes place in France, so naturally, the characters speak French. The novel is written in English though, so naturally, the language on paper is English. Now, randomly throwing in French words in dialogue just to make sure your readers really know that these characters are FRENCH!!! is the most annoying writing choice, and it doesn't make sense either. If the characters suddenly switch to French, what language have they been speaking before? Well, certainly not French. I hate this in every novel, and Lainoff does it constantly. It doesn't have the effect these authors think it does, on the contrary.
The characters are sadly rather flat, too. I couldn't tell you much about any of them other than some surface information, and the author doesn't do much with the actually really interesting background stories of some of them. Our heroine Tania is, sadly, mostly reduced to her being sick, which, as much as I liked the rep, doesn't do her justice. It also sometimes feels kind of painted on, because Tania actually, in the end, manages everything rather perfectly and the illness mostly serves to make other characters feel for her, but I won't really criticize that because I do not suffer from this illness myself. There's also a romantic subplot going on that is just not very engaging, so I didn't care for it. I was much more interested in the (superior and better written) romance between two of Tania's friends.
The plot could have been interesting, but somehow I just... felt bored most of the time. I was never really excited about any of it, the twists were really obvious and I didn't really care about what happened to the characters. Maybe it was also just a case of "reader not fitting the read", but I usually love Musketeer novels and this one just wasn't it.
I can see why many will like this, and I applaud the book for the things it does right. I wish it all the luck and all the readers and hope that more authors choose to make invisible chronic illnesses visible on page with the same dedication Lainoff does. But for me, this was mostly a forgettable read.
2.5 stars
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!
The writing is approachable and it's a quick read, there are no pacing issues, it's a well enough crafted novel. The one thing I can criticize about the writing is probably one of my biggest pet peeves ever: This story takes place in France, so naturally, the characters speak French. The novel is written in English though, so naturally, the language on paper is English. Now, randomly throwing in French words in dialogue just to make sure your readers really know that these characters are FRENCH!!! is the most annoying writing choice, and it doesn't make sense either. If the characters suddenly switch to French, what language have they been speaking before? Well, certainly not French. I hate this in every novel, and Lainoff does it constantly. It doesn't have the effect these authors think it does, on the contrary.
The characters are sadly rather flat, too. I couldn't tell you much about any of them other than some surface information, and the author doesn't do much with the actually really interesting background stories of some of them. Our heroine Tania is, sadly, mostly reduced to her being sick, which, as much as I liked the rep, doesn't do her justice. It also sometimes feels kind of painted on, because Tania actually, in the end, manages everything rather perfectly and the illness mostly serves to make other characters feel for her, but I won't really criticize that because I do not suffer from this illness myself. There's also a romantic subplot going on that is just not very engaging, so I didn't care for it. I was much more interested in the (superior and better written) romance between two of Tania's friends.
The plot could have been interesting, but somehow I just... felt bored most of the time. I was never really excited about any of it, the twists were really obvious and I didn't really care about what happened to the characters. Maybe it was also just a case of "reader not fitting the read", but I usually love Musketeer novels and this one just wasn't it.
I can see why many will like this, and I applaud the book for the things it does right. I wish it all the luck and all the readers and hope that more authors choose to make invisible chronic illnesses visible on page with the same dedication Lainoff does. But for me, this was mostly a forgettable read.
2.5 stars
Many thanks to Titan Books and Netgalley for the arc!