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sue_reilly 's review for:
Glitterland
by Alexis Hall
June 2023 book club.
Did I miss like 100 pages of groveling? Because there is no way Darian should have accepted that weak-ass apology. Ash is like, "You cook for me and cheer me up, I love you!" Puh-lease. Darian, don't do it! It's especially lacking in that we don't see Ash bring Darian around his friends again, I am extremely unconvinced that Ash has the balls to call him his boyfriend around his friends. Everybody in this book is garbage except the lady agent/friend and (two-dimensional) Darian and his friends. I'm not giving this a star rating for now, but I did not enjoy this at all. Well, the audio reader did a great job and saved me from having to read dialect on-page, so that was nice.
ALSO Ash has no character arc in this book, he is just as selfish, manipulative, and mean at the end of the book as he is at the beginning. I would have loved to have seen some growth for this character.
Hall often explores relationships that cross class boundaries ([b:For Real|40726183|For Real (Spires, #3)|Alexis Hall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530809160l/40726183._SY75_.jpg|45123759], [b:Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake|55533831|Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)|Alexis Hall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610495934l/55533831._SY75_.jpg|86199564]), but in this case he makes the kind of trashy Essex folks this idealized naive child-like primitive people, it's super simplified and two-dimensional. I am all for the sharp, insightful dissection of the upper classes but making lower class characters child-like and simple is just not great. (Though very reminiscent of E.M. Forster's characterization of the love interest in [b:Maurice|3103|Maurice|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361934128l/3103._SX50_.jpg|2394184], in sharp contrast to the self-loathing and pathetic academic love interest).
I adore Alexis Hall's writing but this was not for me.
Did I miss like 100 pages of groveling? Because there is no way Darian should have accepted that weak-ass apology. Ash is like, "You cook for me and cheer me up, I love you!" Puh-lease. Darian, don't do it! It's especially lacking in that we don't see Ash bring Darian around his friends again, I am extremely unconvinced that Ash has the balls to call him his boyfriend around his friends. Everybody in this book is garbage except the lady agent/friend and (two-dimensional) Darian and his friends. I'm not giving this a star rating for now, but I did not enjoy this at all. Well, the audio reader did a great job and saved me from having to read dialect on-page, so that was nice.
ALSO Ash has no character arc in this book, he is just as selfish, manipulative, and mean at the end of the book as he is at the beginning. I would have loved to have seen some growth for this character.
Hall often explores relationships that cross class boundaries ([b:For Real|40726183|For Real (Spires, #3)|Alexis Hall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1530809160l/40726183._SY75_.jpg|45123759], [b:Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake|55533831|Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Winner Bakes All, #1)|Alexis Hall|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1610495934l/55533831._SY75_.jpg|86199564]), but in this case he makes the kind of trashy Essex folks this idealized naive child-like primitive people, it's super simplified and two-dimensional. I am all for the sharp, insightful dissection of the upper classes but making lower class characters child-like and simple is just not great. (Though very reminiscent of E.M. Forster's characterization of the love interest in [b:Maurice|3103|Maurice|E.M. Forster|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1361934128l/3103._SX50_.jpg|2394184], in sharp contrast to the self-loathing and pathetic academic love interest).
I adore Alexis Hall's writing but this was not for me.