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A review by cyanide_latte
Nolan by James Crawford
3.0
At last, we have the final book in the Leech trilogy for me to review, having finished it.
So, here's where I'm at with this book. As usual, there are some spelling and grammatical errors throughout, but I do feel like this book is the most polished as far as spelling and grammar go out of all three. The formatting for this book is also very cleaned up and the font the book is written in is much easier on the eyes than the font used in the other two books.
Now, I do think this was a pretty decent conclusion to the Leech trilogy. Again, the combat moments feel a little confusing and rushed at times, but overall the events that happen are a decent close to the story. And it ended in a way that made me quite happy. Plus, Mickey. Mickey is arguably the best character in the entire trilogy in my personal opinion, and he shines pretty bright in this book.
Here's my one issue with it all:Nolan, the character this book is named for.
So Nolan is one-third of the love triangle involving Jack and Caleo as well, which was sort of set up for us in the first book. When Caleo and Jack first meet Nolan in book one, Caleo's definitely drawn to Nolan, and that's pretty obvious. Throughout the books there is tension between the three because Nolan and Jack both have feelings for Caleo, who is understandably confused about how he feels. I honestly didn't really care for the love triangle setup, because Nolan's sexual attraction to a guy who is a LOT younger than himself came off as forced, creepy, and disconnected from his other reasons for being around Caleo. Jack's feelings for Caleo felt more organic and natural, and Caleo just seemed like he was constantly being dragged around by puppetstrings regarding figuring out his sexual attraction to Nolan versus what he feels for Jack.
Additionally, at one point in this book, Caleo briefly believes Jack is killed and more or less flings himself at Nolan for comfort and the two have sex. Caleo declares to himself he loves Nolan, and later tries to assure himself that's the case simply because "Jack is a human and if I fall in love with him and he grows old and dies, that'll hurt". Honestly, the mention of comfort sex between Nolan and Caleo felt forced and like a cheap grab to see how many shippers would get on board with that.
And I just ultimately felt no emotional pull to connect with Nolan. We get a brief glimpse into his past via psychic flashback, but it's still not very emotionally moving to read. (Not to mention, whereas the previous two books really stayed with the POV of the character they were named for, this one didn't. For this book being named Nolan, we never really got Nolan's POV at all, and he's not even in it for more than half the plot. Naming this book Nolan feels kind of lazy, as it didn't follow the structure of the previous two books at all, and there was no real point of connection to Nolan as a character emotionally, at least not as far as I'm concerned.)
So yeah, in case you couldn't tell...I HATE Nolan as a character. He can choke.
But overall I'm happy I've finished reading this series, and I'm glad that I bought it. I definitely enjoyed the world and concept that Crawford created, and if he ever chooses to revisit this world or build a similar one, I'd like to see what he writes next and how he grows as a writer.
So, here's where I'm at with this book. As usual, there are some spelling and grammatical errors throughout, but I do feel like this book is the most polished as far as spelling and grammar go out of all three. The formatting for this book is also very cleaned up and the font the book is written in is much easier on the eyes than the font used in the other two books.
Now, I do think this was a pretty decent conclusion to the Leech trilogy. Again, the combat moments feel a little confusing and rushed at times, but overall the events that happen are a decent close to the story. And it ended in a way that made me quite happy. Plus, Mickey. Mickey is arguably the best character in the entire trilogy in my personal opinion, and he shines pretty bright in this book.
Here's my one issue with it all:
So Nolan is one-third of the love triangle involving Jack and Caleo as well, which was sort of set up for us in the first book. When Caleo and Jack first meet Nolan in book one, Caleo's definitely drawn to Nolan, and that's pretty obvious. Throughout the books there is tension between the three because Nolan and Jack both have feelings for Caleo, who is understandably confused about how he feels. I honestly didn't really care for the love triangle setup, because Nolan's sexual attraction to a guy who is a LOT younger than himself came off as forced, creepy, and disconnected from his other reasons for being around Caleo. Jack's feelings for Caleo felt more organic and natural, and Caleo just seemed like he was constantly being dragged around by puppetstrings regarding figuring out his sexual attraction to Nolan versus what he feels for Jack.
Additionally, at one point in this book, Caleo briefly believes Jack is killed and more or less flings himself at Nolan for comfort and the two have sex. Caleo declares to himself he loves Nolan, and later tries to assure himself that's the case simply because "Jack is a human and if I fall in love with him and he grows old and dies, that'll hurt". Honestly, the mention of comfort sex between Nolan and Caleo felt forced and like a cheap grab to see how many shippers would get on board with that.
And I just ultimately felt no emotional pull to connect with Nolan. We get a brief glimpse into his past via psychic flashback, but it's still not very emotionally moving to read. (Not to mention, whereas the previous two books really stayed with the POV of the character they were named for, this one didn't. For this book being named Nolan, we never really got Nolan's POV at all, and he's not even in it for more than half the plot. Naming this book Nolan feels kind of lazy, as it didn't follow the structure of the previous two books at all, and there was no real point of connection to Nolan as a character emotionally, at least not as far as I'm concerned.)
So yeah, in case you couldn't tell...I HATE Nolan as a character. He can choke.
But overall I'm happy I've finished reading this series, and I'm glad that I bought it. I definitely enjoyed the world and concept that Crawford created, and if he ever chooses to revisit this world or build a similar one, I'd like to see what he writes next and how he grows as a writer.