teereadsbooks 's review for:

King of Hollywood by Fae Quin

2.25

slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

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Oof. I have some thoughts. I saw so many good things about this one, and I wanted to love this, but there were some things that were too much to look past for me to love it. I came really close to DNF'ing, but I had already read 70%, so I decided to just finish it. Now, I had a lot of fun with Bite Me! (You Know I Like It) by this author, which also has vampires. I think where this one went wrong was how Marshall's character was presented. I think the author's intention was for him to be comedic relief as an oblivious idiot, but, to me, his character came across as autistic coded. And a caricature of autism at that. He mentions his struggles with social cues, his dislike of physical touch, his need for structure, which are all traits that are extremely common and prevalent in autistic people. There came a point in the story where I started feeling like Marshall was being mocked for this (his struggles with social cues being a big one), and it just wasn't funny to me. The big reveal went on too long. We, the audience, knew what it was. We were just watching Marshall struggle to figure it out despite it seeming obvious because he struggles with that. The character presentation and story pacing just didn't work for me (the book felt longer than the story really needed), and this story just felt more problematic than anything. I really hope this is a one-off for this author because I would love to give her another chance. She just needs to be more mindful and conscientious about how she is writing and presenting her characters.