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A review by marlovve
Up Your HOA Hole by B.J. Irons
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Thank you to Netgalley and Spectrum Books for providing me with a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!
This book fell a bit flat for me. It may be that it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but reading the premise made me expect I would have a good time with it. Unfortunately, the writing felt very weak to me and the characters were not at all likeable to me.
The writing told the reader too much without showing anything much at all. We were simply told how welcoming and wonderful the community was, how kind everyone was to them, but we barely saw this in the characters at all. Sure, Gwen was quite welcoming from the start, along with Lacey, but we absolutely did not meet enough characters to justify their view of the area. Whilst it was meant to be a bustling community, only having 2-3 named characters outside our protagonists who get any time on the page made it feel sparse, and almost all were quite unlikeable. The dialogue also felt quite stilted, and relationships felt somewhat forced at times, even between the main characters. There wasn't much chemistry between any of the characters on the page, which I suppose could have been somewhat intentional for certain relationships, but it felt very jarring to read.
If you're just here for the drama, I think you'd have a pretty good time though! The characters here were absolutely agents of chaos, messy as hell and filled with drama to the brim. The ending felt a little rushed for me, and using the exact same chapter from the beginning twice felt a little cheap. If it had been altered somewhat, it would have been a good nod without just copy-pasting it.
Overall, I think this just was not for me.
This book fell a bit flat for me. It may be that it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but reading the premise made me expect I would have a good time with it. Unfortunately, the writing felt very weak to me and the characters were not at all likeable to me.
The writing told the reader too much without showing anything much at all. We were simply told how welcoming and wonderful the community was, how kind everyone was to them, but we barely saw this in the characters at all. Sure, Gwen was quite welcoming from the start, along with Lacey, but we absolutely did not meet enough characters to justify their view of the area. Whilst it was meant to be a bustling community, only having 2-3 named characters outside our protagonists who get any time on the page made it feel sparse, and almost all were quite unlikeable. The dialogue also felt quite stilted, and relationships felt somewhat forced at times, even between the main characters. There wasn't much chemistry between any of the characters on the page, which I suppose could have been somewhat intentional for certain relationships, but it felt very jarring to read.
If you're just here for the drama, I think you'd have a pretty good time though! The characters here were absolutely agents of chaos, messy as hell and filled with drama to the brim. The ending felt a little rushed for me, and using the exact same chapter from the beginning twice felt a little cheap. If it had been altered somewhat, it would have been a good nod without just copy-pasting it.
Overall, I think this just was not for me.