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A review by marie_thereadingotter
Better Together by Christine Riccio
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Review:
I received this book from NetGalley for review.
So... this book was kind of a mess. The dialog, the characters, the plot. All of it was just not good.
Jamie and Siri are both the most insufferable characters I've read in a while.
I enjoyed Riccio's first book, it had its problems, but it was fine. The characters, for the most part, could pass as real people.
Jamie and Siri are separated at a young age, 6 and 4, and haven't seen each other since. Siri stayed with their mother and Jamie went with their father, and their mother took Siri to therapy and was somehow able to get the therapist to go along with convincing Siri that Jamie was an imaginary friend and to forget that she existed. Not sure how the mother was able to find a therapist to go along with this and remain in the same state that her kids were born in. It just... didn't really make sense.
Jamie, the older of the sisters, wants to be a stand-up comedian, I don't know if was meant to be part of her character to not be funny in the slightest, or if was just a failed attempt to be funny in general.
Siri is equally annoying. She doesn't swear, which could work under normal circumstances, but in place of swears, she says things like "intercourse yourself" and "excrement"... and it sounded very childish. And for a character who is supposed to be in their early 20's, it didn't work.
The characters are both in their early 20's but they both behave like they are at the oldest 14. Where Siri doesn't swear at all, Jamie finds a way to swear every time she opens her mouth. But it wasn't in a way with how people who do swear that often talk. It was, again, a little childish. Like a kid who swears behind their parent's back. It just seemed that it was something put in to show how different they are. Nothing about these characters came across as something that was natural, everything felt very forced.
I skim read the latter half of this book because the dialog was so painful to read.
I received this book from NetGalley for review.
So... this book was kind of a mess. The dialog, the characters, the plot. All of it was just not good.
Jamie and Siri are both the most insufferable characters I've read in a while.
I enjoyed Riccio's first book, it had its problems, but it was fine. The characters, for the most part, could pass as real people.
Jamie and Siri are separated at a young age, 6 and 4, and haven't seen each other since. Siri stayed with their mother and Jamie went with their father, and their mother took Siri to therapy and was somehow able to get the therapist to go along with convincing Siri that Jamie was an imaginary friend and to forget that she existed. Not sure how the mother was able to find a therapist to go along with this and remain in the same state that her kids were born in. It just... didn't really make sense.
Jamie, the older of the sisters, wants to be a stand-up comedian, I don't know if was meant to be part of her character to not be funny in the slightest, or if was just a failed attempt to be funny in general.
Siri is equally annoying. She doesn't swear, which could work under normal circumstances, but in place of swears, she says things like "intercourse yourself" and "excrement"... and it sounded very childish. And for a character who is supposed to be in their early 20's, it didn't work.
The characters are both in their early 20's but they both behave like they are at the oldest 14. Where Siri doesn't swear at all, Jamie finds a way to swear every time she opens her mouth. But it wasn't in a way with how people who do swear that often talk. It was, again, a little childish. Like a kid who swears behind their parent's back. It just seemed that it was something put in to show how different they are. Nothing about these characters came across as something that was natural, everything felt very forced.
I skim read the latter half of this book because the dialog was so painful to read.