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I finished this book a month ago and I was stalling on writing a review because I wanted to figure out how to describe my reading experience in a more eloquent manner.
It’s just not good! And that’s okay.
Not that good especially when compared to Lights Out, which is saying something because Caught Up has more structure. Whenever I was close to DNF’ing, Josh and Aly would show up to save my attention span. The ending left me feeling good only because we were promised a Tyler-centric book. Prior to picking up the book, I actually thought it was going to be a prequel book about Nico’s parents. It feels like I care about everyone else except Nico and Lauren.
I feel silly for wanting more nuance from the writing in a smut book, and I normally have no issues with suspending my belief, but god were the politics abysmally written. I know that there are other reviews saying that this book was too “woke” but I say it was not woke enough. I do believe Navessa Allen had good intentions with how she wanted to portray sex work, especially because the acknowledgments state that she had spoken to actual sex workers for research, but I don’t think she did enough. I think the politics around sex work shown in the book was very one-note, and a more multi-layered approach would have enriched the experience.
The one positive is that this actually felt like a dark romance compared to Lights Out (which was pretty vanilla) but it was just hard to get into because of the lack of chemistry.
It’s just not good! And that’s okay.
Not that good especially when compared to Lights Out, which is saying something because Caught Up has more structure. Whenever I was close to DNF’ing, Josh and Aly would show up to save my attention span. The ending left me feeling good only because we were promised a Tyler-centric book. Prior to picking up the book, I actually thought it was going to be a prequel book about Nico’s parents. It feels like I care about everyone else except Nico and Lauren.
I feel silly for wanting more nuance from the writing in a smut book, and I normally have no issues with suspending my belief, but god were the politics abysmally written. I know that there are other reviews saying that this book was too “woke” but I say it was not woke enough. I do believe Navessa Allen had good intentions with how she wanted to portray sex work, especially because the acknowledgments state that she had spoken to actual sex workers for research, but I don’t think she did enough. I think the politics around sex work shown in the book was very one-note, and a more multi-layered approach would have enriched the experience.
The one positive is that this actually felt like a dark romance compared to Lights Out (which was pretty vanilla) but it was just hard to get into because of the lack of chemistry.