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readingthroughinfinity 's review for:
Loathe at First Sight
by Suzanne Park
TWs: Fatphobia, racism, sexism, workplace discrimination, forced disclosure of a pregnancy.
This has to be one of the most frustrating books I've read this year. It tried to cover a lot of different social issues but ends up not discussing any of them in depth. The story follows Melody Joo, a video game producer, as she's tasked with creating a new game and has to deal with sexism in the workplace.
I wanted to like Melody's character, but from the first few chapters she's hypocritical and unkind to other people. She complains that one of her friends doesn't treat her well, but is then unkind and rude towards that friend. She dislikes her parents' and friend's fatphobia, but she, in turn, is fatphobic towards her colleagues. All these small contradictions built up over the book and ended up detracting from the plot.
I really didn't enjoy how the narrative used being fat to demonise some of the antagonists. It was implied time and time again that these characters were even more 'gross' and 'awful' because they were fat, which was really uncomfortable to read.
The characters who were meant to be the 'villains' of the story came off as cartoonish and over-the-top. I think the author wanted to show how awful sexism in the workplace is but there was no subtlety or nuance to it. I don't doubt that there are people like this in certain workplaces, especially in gaming circles where woman can be treated poorly for just existing in those spaces. But the way Melody's manager and coworkers interacted with her was so aggressively sexist that it made them seem like caricatures.
Realistically, people could be fired or taken to an employee tribunal for this kind of behavior, so I found it a little unbelievable that they'd get away with this behavior time and time again? Especially when Melody seemed like the type of character who wouldn't stand for it.
I also don't think that listening to this on audio helped because hearing some of the sexist dialogue out loud made it sound more unrealistic. The writing style felt clumsy in places and the audio narration amplified this too. Although this is being marketed as a romance, there's not much romantic content and it's actually more about gaming and game creation, which I didn't mind. But I thought it was shame that the two leads didn't seem to have much chemistry, and I wondered if this would have been better marketed as a contemporary than a romance.
There's also a scene where a secondary character is forced to tell everyone she's pregnant by another character, which I found very uncomfortable to read and not necessary to the plot.
I thought this was going to be a fun enemies-to-lovers romance, but there's little to no enemies-to-lovers content and there were too many other issues for me to enjoy the story.
This has to be one of the most frustrating books I've read this year. It tried to cover a lot of different social issues but ends up not discussing any of them in depth. The story follows Melody Joo, a video game producer, as she's tasked with creating a new game and has to deal with sexism in the workplace.
I wanted to like Melody's character, but from the first few chapters she's hypocritical and unkind to other people. She complains that one of her friends doesn't treat her well, but is then unkind and rude towards that friend. She dislikes her parents' and friend's fatphobia, but she, in turn, is fatphobic towards her colleagues. All these small contradictions built up over the book and ended up detracting from the plot.
I really didn't enjoy how the narrative used being fat to demonise some of the antagonists. It was implied time and time again that these characters were even more 'gross' and 'awful' because they were fat, which was really uncomfortable to read.
The characters who were meant to be the 'villains' of the story came off as cartoonish and over-the-top. I think the author wanted to show how awful sexism in the workplace is but there was no subtlety or nuance to it. I don't doubt that there are people like this in certain workplaces, especially in gaming circles where woman can be treated poorly for just existing in those spaces. But the way Melody's manager and coworkers interacted with her was so aggressively sexist that it made them seem like caricatures.
Realistically, people could be fired or taken to an employee tribunal for this kind of behavior, so I found it a little unbelievable that they'd get away with this behavior time and time again? Especially when Melody seemed like the type of character who wouldn't stand for it.
I also don't think that listening to this on audio helped because hearing some of the sexist dialogue out loud made it sound more unrealistic. The writing style felt clumsy in places and the audio narration amplified this too. Although this is being marketed as a romance, there's not much romantic content and it's actually more about gaming and game creation, which I didn't mind. But I thought it was shame that the two leads didn't seem to have much chemistry, and I wondered if this would have been better marketed as a contemporary than a romance.
There's also a scene where a secondary character is forced to tell everyone she's pregnant by another character, which I found very uncomfortable to read and not necessary to the plot.
I thought this was going to be a fun enemies-to-lovers romance, but there's little to no enemies-to-lovers content and there were too many other issues for me to enjoy the story.