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A review by eleanorefiore
Royal Rescue by A. Alex Logan
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
✨ aroace main character
✨ talking dragons
✨ not a fan of how women are presented
I absolutely loved the setting. It’s a queer-normative world with many POC and LGBTQ+ characters, and there’s even gender-neutral royals who use the term princex which I LOVE. The dragons and the magical creatures were a lot of fun, and I liked how many different environments we saw.
As far as Gerald, I liked him, but he’s a little bit of a downer. Now, I get it—I’m asexual, and I get how incredibly disheartening acephobia is. But I’m also a “don’t mope” kind of person from a “pick yourself up” kind of family, and I don’t believe in talking badly about yourself for an extended period of time. He spends 95% of the book down on himself for everything, and while I never minded that much, I think some people would have a problem with that.
He also has great connections with the other male main characters of the story though—Erik and Omar. I loved their dynamic, it felt very real and their dialogue wasn't forced at all. And I loved the exploration of a queerplatonic relationship.
That said *calming breath* all the women in this book were one-dimensional bullies. All the women main characters were portrayed the same—they pick on Gerald, they're arophobic, they’re pushy, they’re mean, they steamroll conversations, and everyone else is like “well, we can’t stop them I guess we have to let them finish *shrug\eye roll*”. And the women side characters who weren’t characterized that way were just passive.
All of them existed just to be acephobic\arophobic to Gerald and that’s it. There wasn’t any depth to anyone—not even his mom or sister. We’re told that they have depth, and that their feelings on Gerald are complicated, but we’re never shown that.
The men and non-binary characters had personalities and differences, and the women didn’t (besides their looks) and that really frustrated me.
Overall, I did think the book was cute, and I did enjoy it. I also related to a lot of the frustration Gerald feels, and how acephobia can affect you and your thought process. But the disregard for women really brought the book down for me.
✨ talking dragons
✨ not a fan of how women are presented
I absolutely loved the setting. It’s a queer-normative world with many POC and LGBTQ+ characters, and there’s even gender-neutral royals who use the term princex which I LOVE. The dragons and the magical creatures were a lot of fun, and I liked how many different environments we saw.
As far as Gerald, I liked him, but he’s a little bit of a downer. Now, I get it—I’m asexual, and I get how incredibly disheartening acephobia is. But I’m also a “don’t mope” kind of person from a “pick yourself up” kind of family, and I don’t believe in talking badly about yourself for an extended period of time. He spends 95% of the book down on himself for everything, and while I never minded that much, I think some people would have a problem with that.
He also has great connections with the other male main characters of the story though—Erik and Omar. I loved their dynamic, it felt very real and their dialogue wasn't forced at all. And I loved the exploration of a queerplatonic relationship.
That said *calming breath* all the women in this book were one-dimensional bullies. All the women main characters were portrayed the same—they pick on Gerald, they're arophobic, they’re pushy, they’re mean, they steamroll conversations, and everyone else is like “well, we can’t stop them I guess we have to let them finish *shrug\eye roll*”. And the women side characters who weren’t characterized that way were just passive.
All of them existed just to be acephobic\arophobic to Gerald and that’s it. There wasn’t any depth to anyone—not even his mom or sister. We’re told that they have depth, and that their feelings on Gerald are complicated, but we’re never shown that.
The men and non-binary characters had personalities and differences, and the women didn’t (besides their looks) and that really frustrated me.
Overall, I did think the book was cute, and I did enjoy it. I also related to a lot of the frustration Gerald feels, and how acephobia can affect you and your thought process. But the disregard for women really brought the book down for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
The main character also has internalized acephobia/arophobia, as well as instances of outside characters being acephobic/arophobic.