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A review by sfergie
Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Chasing Pacquiao has a lot of promise as a YA novel. The premise of the story - that you can idolise someone who ends up embodying everything you stand against - is a powerful and intriguing one with which I’m sure many queer bookworms have been relating heavily (particularly since a certain once-beloved, transphobic author took to twitter). Unfortunately, where Chasing Pacquiao falls short is that this premise is not really what this book is about. The inner conflict that Bobby feels about Manny has surprisingly little time in the spotlight, given that “the reveal” doesn’t happen until the final quarter of the story, by which point Bobby is already well and truly deep into the actual A plot of the book (him trying not to be killed by his bully). Bobby’s relationship with Manny and his own memories of him could have been explored so much deeper had the reveal happened much earlier in the story, and the fact that nothing really comes of it is definitely a letdown.
This theme of unfulfilled potential carries through the entirety of the story, with the plot touching on ideas such as classism/wealth inequality, addiction, police brutality, complicated parent-child dynamics and a broken healthcare system while never actually exploring any of them meaningfully. This book has all the building blocks of a thrilling and scathing social commentary but ultimately falls flat.
One of my biggest issues with this book is that Bobby is very difficult to like. His inner monologue, particularly in the first half of the book, is constantly negative which makes it a challenge to get through. He’s condescending, judgemental and rude to countless people who try to offer him help – Bran, Rosie, Eric, his teachers, Jorge. He also displays an alarming amount of internalised homophobia – another really interesting concept which is never really addressed, and does not result in any character growth by the end of the book. While I understand that being a surly teenager is definitely a stage of life most of us experience, there’s very little to break up the monotony of complaining about his financial status, Bran’s financial status, Rosie’s presence, and just general snark. Snark is the default mode for Bobby. In his verbal conversations with his friends, he always finds a way to bring the conversation back to him and his issues, as though the other characters in this book exist purely for him; they seem to have no purpose or characterisation in the book outside of serving Bobby.
Another trait that makes Bobby rather unlikeable is his tendency towards lashing out at others by picking on their physical appearances. He makes fun of people for things that they can’t help (nose hair, acne etc) which is exactly what he is being bullied for – something he can’t control. This could have been turned into a character arc of growth with Bobby becoming more self-aware and less nasty as a defence mechanism, but Bobby unfortunately never experiences any progress in this area.
There are also several quite damaging aspects to this book. The biggest standout for me is Bobby’s toxic involvement with diet culture. He spends a large amount of the book heavily restricting his food intake and referring to himself as “dieting”. As someone who has struggled with disordered eating for well over a decade, not at all helped by unhealthy portrayals of nutrition in media, this was really disappointing to see and seemed like a very old-fashioned approach to physical improvement when two seconds on Google would have shown Bobby that he doesn’t need to eat a dozen eggs a day and cut rice completely out of his diet (hello 90s Atkins cult flashbacks) in order to gain muscle. I’m concerned that this blatant display of toxic diet culture could be damaging to young readers.
In terms of the actual writing of the book, it lacks nuance. Coming back to the poorly developed characterisation, it feels like there’s a lot of stereotyping in this book, both racially and with regards to queer people/relationships. Everything feels very surface level and tokenistic, and none of the characters outside of Bobby feel very believable. The humour in this story is also uncomfortable – there’s a definite sense that it’s boomer humour. The dialogue does not feel realistic and as though it were spoken by teenagers. There’s also an awful lot of signposting for the readers – things are overexplained and it doesn’t feel as though the author trusts the reader to form fairly obvious connections (i.e. explaining that “anak” is the Filipino word for son, when it’s very clear in the context of the text what this word means to anyone who doesn’t speak Tagalog). However, given that this is a debut novel, I’ll give the author some slack – but this is definitely a focus area for any future works. Trust your readers.
All in all, although the book definitely picks up in the second half, in the end it fell short for me. I will finish with two parting thoughts: “self-preservation” is not a motto, and PLEASE for the love of god don’t mix cleaning chemicals unless you absolutely know what you’re doing!
This theme of unfulfilled potential carries through the entirety of the story, with the plot touching on ideas such as classism/wealth inequality, addiction, police brutality, complicated parent-child dynamics and a broken healthcare system while never actually exploring any of them meaningfully. This book has all the building blocks of a thrilling and scathing social commentary but ultimately falls flat.
One of my biggest issues with this book is that Bobby is very difficult to like. His inner monologue, particularly in the first half of the book, is constantly negative which makes it a challenge to get through. He’s condescending, judgemental and rude to countless people who try to offer him help – Bran, Rosie, Eric, his teachers, Jorge. He also displays an alarming amount of internalised homophobia – another really interesting concept which is never really addressed, and does not result in any character growth by the end of the book. While I understand that being a surly teenager is definitely a stage of life most of us experience, there’s very little to break up the monotony of complaining about his financial status, Bran’s financial status, Rosie’s presence, and just general snark. Snark is the default mode for Bobby. In his verbal conversations with his friends, he always finds a way to bring the conversation back to him and his issues, as though the other characters in this book exist purely for him; they seem to have no purpose or characterisation in the book outside of serving Bobby.
Another trait that makes Bobby rather unlikeable is his tendency towards lashing out at others by picking on their physical appearances. He makes fun of people for things that they can’t help (nose hair, acne etc) which is exactly what he is being bullied for – something he can’t control. This could have been turned into a character arc of growth with Bobby becoming more self-aware and less nasty as a defence mechanism, but Bobby unfortunately never experiences any progress in this area.
There are also several quite damaging aspects to this book. The biggest standout for me is Bobby’s toxic involvement with diet culture. He spends a large amount of the book heavily restricting his food intake and referring to himself as “dieting”. As someone who has struggled with disordered eating for well over a decade, not at all helped by unhealthy portrayals of nutrition in media, this was really disappointing to see and seemed like a very old-fashioned approach to physical improvement when two seconds on Google would have shown Bobby that he doesn’t need to eat a dozen eggs a day and cut rice completely out of his diet (hello 90s Atkins cult flashbacks) in order to gain muscle. I’m concerned that this blatant display of toxic diet culture could be damaging to young readers.
In terms of the actual writing of the book, it lacks nuance. Coming back to the poorly developed characterisation, it feels like there’s a lot of stereotyping in this book, both racially and with regards to queer people/relationships. Everything feels very surface level and tokenistic, and none of the characters outside of Bobby feel very believable. The humour in this story is also uncomfortable – there’s a definite sense that it’s boomer humour. The dialogue does not feel realistic and as though it were spoken by teenagers. There’s also an awful lot of signposting for the readers – things are overexplained and it doesn’t feel as though the author trusts the reader to form fairly obvious connections (i.e. explaining that “anak” is the Filipino word for son, when it’s very clear in the context of the text what this word means to anyone who doesn’t speak Tagalog). However, given that this is a debut novel, I’ll give the author some slack – but this is definitely a focus area for any future works. Trust your readers.
All in all, although the book definitely picks up in the second half, in the end it fell short for me. I will finish with two parting thoughts: “self-preservation” is not a motto, and PLEASE for the love of god don’t mix cleaning chemicals unless you absolutely know what you’re doing!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Eating disorder