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A review by ailurop0da
Soul Fraud by Andrew Givler
1.0
I am DNF-ing this book at 130 pages.
I wanted to love this book, my brother bought it for me hoping I would love it. Unfortunately that didn't happen.
This book has so much potential. There were some aspects I really like. But I couldn't get over my frustration with the Writing and the Main character. The more I read the more I hated the main character and got sick of him.
Lets start with the major issue for me which is the inclusion of some problematic language. Multiple times throughout the book there are displays of male friendship. However these get promptly followed by comments about them being within bro code or being man-to-man things that obviously only men would do, such as profane hand gestures at each other as a joke (only men will understand). There are also multiple times where the main character brings up his height in comparison to other people. He says other characters must be very tall because they are taller than him and he's 6ft like it's a badge of honour. It just felt very toxic. It's perpetuating this idea of intimacy between men is wrong, and that men need to be a certain height to have value. I don't think the comments are malicious but they are there, and they are unnecessary and they made me sigh in frustration and roll my eyes every time. 2 guys hug because one of them has just lost his sister and it has to be clarified as a "Bro-hug". Why? A friend looking out for his friend does not need to be clarified, I didn't think it was anything more than a friend comforting his distressed friend. A sign of a good friendship. what is the worry that it needs to be clarified?
The most problematic thing that I read is when the author uses a metaphor comparing clearing smashed glass away to removing mines from Western Germany After world war 2. Which was unnecessary, strange and not similar in any way at all. But to top it off he calls the acts, and says that clearing away dangerous weapons from a war zone that could kill someone as a "waste of time". At that point it was just a ticking clock when I called this book over. That metaphor is insensitive and uncalled for.
Now the main character, Matt. He's a dick. He imagines his friend dying so he can then get with his Fiancé. He imagines his best friend dying in detail at night so he can have his partner because he can't have her. em...excuse me? A best friend he calls brother. I can't. Then he asks us not to judge him, he's just sad. Em... I'm gonna judge you mate. And you can't put this down to teenage angst cause the character is 21. And even if he was a teenager imagining your best friend dying so you can bone his future wife just makes you an awful human being.
He also says at one point that seeing his friends enjoying a meal he couldn't enjoy made him want to kill them. Now this could be his dry humour (which isn't very humourous) but to me it didn't come across like that. At this point I wondered if he actually liked his friends and family at all?
I really wish this book was good. The premise sounded amazing and there are parts of the book where you could see it could have been amazing and then the main character is a twat, with some internalised toxic masculinity and just generally being an awful friend.
I wanted to love this book, my brother bought it for me hoping I would love it. Unfortunately that didn't happen.
This book has so much potential. There were some aspects I really like. But I couldn't get over my frustration with the Writing and the Main character. The more I read the more I hated the main character and got sick of him.
Lets start with the major issue for me which is the inclusion of some problematic language. Multiple times throughout the book there are displays of male friendship. However these get promptly followed by comments about them being within bro code or being man-to-man things that obviously only men would do, such as profane hand gestures at each other as a joke (only men will understand). There are also multiple times where the main character brings up his height in comparison to other people. He says other characters must be very tall because they are taller than him and he's 6ft like it's a badge of honour. It just felt very toxic. It's perpetuating this idea of intimacy between men is wrong, and that men need to be a certain height to have value. I don't think the comments are malicious but they are there, and they are unnecessary and they made me sigh in frustration and roll my eyes every time. 2 guys hug because one of them has just lost his sister and it has to be clarified as a "Bro-hug". Why? A friend looking out for his friend does not need to be clarified, I didn't think it was anything more than a friend comforting his distressed friend. A sign of a good friendship. what is the worry that it needs to be clarified?
The most problematic thing that I read is when the author uses a metaphor comparing clearing smashed glass away to removing mines from Western Germany After world war 2. Which was unnecessary, strange and not similar in any way at all. But to top it off he calls the acts, and says that clearing away dangerous weapons from a war zone that could kill someone as a "waste of time". At that point it was just a ticking clock when I called this book over. That metaphor is insensitive and uncalled for.
Now the main character, Matt. He's a dick. He imagines his friend dying so he can then get with his Fiancé. He imagines his best friend dying in detail at night so he can have his partner because he can't have her. em...excuse me? A best friend he calls brother. I can't. Then he asks us not to judge him, he's just sad. Em... I'm gonna judge you mate. And you can't put this down to teenage angst cause the character is 21. And even if he was a teenager imagining your best friend dying so you can bone his future wife just makes you an awful human being.
He also says at one point that seeing his friends enjoying a meal he couldn't enjoy made him want to kill them. Now this could be his dry humour (which isn't very humourous) but to me it didn't come across like that. At this point I wondered if he actually liked his friends and family at all?
I really wish this book was good. The premise sounded amazing and there are parts of the book where you could see it could have been amazing and then the main character is a twat, with some internalised toxic masculinity and just generally being an awful friend.