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A review by layla87
Full Contact by Kelly Fox
1.0
Minority Opinion Ahead....
I was excited for this alot. Like... ALOT.
I was looking forward to Omar's book because of all the baggage he had. I'm always excited to read about Musrab characters, though I also dread it. That and the fact that it would be a Grumpy-sunshine book... I had high expectations.
However...
Things started good enough. The Halloween encounter was sexy and fun.
And then... the pranks started. The pranks that were fun in the beginning and progressively started getting more and more uncomfortable. You see, putting a "Fuck The Police" bumper sticker on an Musrab's car is just too much. Anders is an educated, worldly doctor. He should know better. And when he was called out on it, he was surprised and clueless.
As a result, I never warmed up to Anders.
Second. Omar.
Omar is a Muslim Iraqi gay man. He's secular (which is almost always the case when authors write a Muslim character. You can be religious and gay you know.) He's got baggage upon baggage of what he endured because of his terrorist of a father. He was a child soldier, someone who murdered and tortured and did unspeakable things.
Ask me how much of that was addressed?
Very very little. All that backstory was just background noise. Omar could have been an amazing character, multi-layered and deep. His backstory had the potential to be quite sincerely great. But it all fizzled out in 1 breakdown. After which Omar turned into a sappy horndog. One breakdown and one day later, Omar transforms into a whole new man. Tell me how this is authentic and respectful of Omar's past?
Moving on...
The Arabic. The Arabic words were both written wrong and used in the wrong context. I'm Lebanese i.e. an Arab. So reading the Arabic phrases was frankly too much.
It's Iraqi not Earaqi. Arabi not Earabi.
The cuss words were too vulgar and nothing that an Arab would use in the context they were put in.
The stereotyping.
“Holy shit, you are one hairy motherfucker.” Yeah, that’s what I figured. I lower my legs and shift away from him, explaining, “I’m Earaqi and Earabi, Anders. And there’s no way in hell I’m waxing, which is why nobody goes down there.”
What? Seriously?
Spoiler Alert, not all Arabs are hairy. Just like not all of us are brown or have dark eyes. Can we not with the stereotypes.
Also... Omar is secular, so that would mean that he wouldn't actually have a problem waxing. If he were religious, it would make sense. But he's not. Again... inconsistency.
Oh and also he's been living in the US for 10+ years and uses many phrases and terms that are distinctly American, which makes sense. And then out of nowhere, uses "cousin" instead of "uncle". Ummm... what?
There is more, but I'm gonna stop here.
I'm so disappointed and quite frankly offended.
I was excited for this alot. Like... ALOT.
I was looking forward to Omar's book because of all the baggage he had. I'm always excited to read about Musrab characters, though I also dread it. That and the fact that it would be a Grumpy-sunshine book... I had high expectations.
However...
Things started good enough. The Halloween encounter was sexy and fun.
And then... the pranks started. The pranks that were fun in the beginning and progressively started getting more and more uncomfortable. You see, putting a "Fuck The Police" bumper sticker on an Musrab's car is just too much. Anders is an educated, worldly doctor. He should know better. And when he was called out on it, he was surprised and clueless.
As a result, I never warmed up to Anders.
Second. Omar.
Omar is a Muslim Iraqi gay man. He's secular (which is almost always the case when authors write a Muslim character. You can be religious and gay you know.) He's got baggage upon baggage of what he endured because of his terrorist of a father. He was a child soldier, someone who murdered and tortured and did unspeakable things.
Ask me how much of that was addressed?
Very very little. All that backstory was just background noise. Omar could have been an amazing character, multi-layered and deep. His backstory had the potential to be quite sincerely great. But it all fizzled out in 1 breakdown. After which Omar turned into a sappy horndog. One breakdown and one day later, Omar transforms into a whole new man. Tell me how this is authentic and respectful of Omar's past?
Moving on...
The Arabic. The Arabic words were both written wrong and used in the wrong context. I'm Lebanese i.e. an Arab. So reading the Arabic phrases was frankly too much.
It's Iraqi not Earaqi. Arabi not Earabi.
The cuss words were too vulgar and nothing that an Arab would use in the context they were put in.
The stereotyping.
“Holy shit, you are one hairy motherfucker.” Yeah, that’s what I figured. I lower my legs and shift away from him, explaining, “I’m Earaqi and Earabi, Anders. And there’s no way in hell I’m waxing, which is why nobody goes down there.”
What? Seriously?
Spoiler Alert, not all Arabs are hairy. Just like not all of us are brown or have dark eyes. Can we not with the stereotypes.
Also... Omar is secular, so that would mean that he wouldn't actually have a problem waxing. If he were religious, it would make sense. But he's not. Again... inconsistency.
Oh and also he's been living in the US for 10+ years and uses many phrases and terms that are distinctly American, which makes sense. And then out of nowhere, uses "cousin" instead of "uncle". Ummm... what?
There is more, but I'm gonna stop here.
I'm so disappointed and quite frankly offended.