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A review by letsgolesbians
Fly With Me by Andie Burke
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
i'm used to reading dual pov romances, and i enjoyed the single pov and not having all the information about how the love interest is feeling and thinking. i enjoyed the two women falling in love with both dealing with so much outside of their relationship.
but there were several things i did not love.
1. the only time race was mentioned was at stella's events, describing a white woman and her Black wife and the white men they were sitting with. the description of stella doesn't have any skin tone description. most people don't. i hated this, especially when we learn that stella is mexican. if she's white and latina then there's colonizer blood in her and she's aware of it and it's likely a conversation they would have had.
2. the amatonormativity. stella seems so reluctant to be in a real relationship and the author tried to make us believe it was because she had bad previous relationships, but i kept thinking that maybe she was on the aro spectrum. but of course that couldn't be a possibility because even queer authors forget to think about the a in lgbtqia+.
3. the language. "a fake hooker" yes let's use pejoratives for sex workers "overdose on embarrassment" and "addictive kind of witty banter" please talk to addicts and stop being casual about addiction thanks "nodded feebly" ableism in front of a disabled person cool "you make me sound all loose and slutty" and slut shaming to top it off
4. why was olive's ex so terrible? it's not that i didnt find it believable because some people are vindictive and ruthless but i still didn't fully feel it
i wasn't really rooting for them after their argument and breakup. i received an earc of this from netgalley (thank you!) and also listened to an audiobook i checked out from the library, and i didnt like the narrator's performance. she pronounced "papi" as "poppy" and her stella voice irritated me a little.
cws: acute depressive episode; anaphylactic allergic reaction; anxiety; caregiving; depression; end of life decision making; grief; management of a parent’s diagnosis of a progressive neurological disease; misogyny; panic attack; parent with parkinson’s; sibling death; sibling with fatal tbi
but there were several things i did not love.
1. the only time race was mentioned was at stella's events, describing a white woman and her Black wife and the white men they were sitting with. the description of stella doesn't have any skin tone description. most people don't. i hated this, especially when we learn that stella is mexican. if she's white and latina then there's colonizer blood in her and she's aware of it and it's likely a conversation they would have had.
2. the amatonormativity. stella seems so reluctant to be in a real relationship and the author tried to make us believe it was because she had bad previous relationships, but i kept thinking that maybe she was on the aro spectrum. but of course that couldn't be a possibility because even queer authors forget to think about the a in lgbtqia+.
3. the language. "a fake hooker" yes let's use pejoratives for sex workers "overdose on embarrassment" and "addictive kind of witty banter" please talk to addicts and stop being casual about addiction thanks "nodded feebly" ableism in front of a disabled person cool "you make me sound all loose and slutty" and slut shaming to top it off
4. why was olive's ex so terrible? it's not that i didnt find it believable because some people are vindictive and ruthless but i still didn't fully feel it
i wasn't really rooting for them after their argument and breakup. i received an earc of this from netgalley (thank you!) and also listened to an audiobook i checked out from the library, and i didnt like the narrator's performance. she pronounced "papi" as "poppy" and her stella voice irritated me a little.
cws: acute depressive episode; anaphylactic allergic reaction; anxiety; caregiving; depression; end of life decision making; grief; management of a parent’s diagnosis of a progressive neurological disease; misogyny; panic attack; parent with parkinson’s; sibling death; sibling with fatal tbi
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Classism
Moderate: Car accident
Minor: Alcohol