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A review by mojidaa
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
4.0
3.5⭐️⬆️
Aight, I don’t know enough about chess to judge if this book was chess-accurated, but I’d assumed it was. I think it was fun, it was super duper slow and hard to get into at first, but when it hit, it just hit. Like almost all her books, it had a slow start, like all her books, IT JUST FELT THE SAME.
Aight, don’t get me wrong, I love Ali Hazelwood. No matter how similar all her books were, no matter how blended in together her books have become for me, I still enjoyed it. But damn, can you really do this? Can you really just write something that has the same plot, with just a little change in the environment and characters’ names? It just feels like Multiverse at this point.
Nolan had my whole heart though. This guy, everyone, was a total simp. He was hooked. Even through Mal’s pov, we could feel how deeply he fell for her. Like this nobody girlie who appeared out of nowhere beat him in some random tournament, embarrassingly so, and he was HOOKED. Like follow-you-to-the-end kinda hook. And I loved that. A lot. He was so cute, so innocent, like he made my heart warm,reading about him.
Mal, on the other hand. GIRLIE. Ok, I almost forget how annoying YA is. How infuriating a character can be. HOW antagonizingly immature the ‘problems’ can be. Was I this annoying when I was 18?? Like I get it. She had her traumas, her problems and she was forced to grow up way too fast and truthfully, I blamed her mom for it. BUT URGHHHH. She was so annoying. Oz became my favourite character the moment he knocked some sense into her. She almost made me drop this book, just FYI. URGH.
Ok. Controversial. I love how ali talks about sexism in male-dominated industries. But. Isn’t it getting kinda repetitive that a chunk of her plots, or should I say plot, of her every single book, just centered around that? Or is it just me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love reading about it and how the characters deal with it. But it seriously is getting kinda uncreative….and I hate to say this, forced…
If you read my review, you probably think I hate this book. I don’t. I just found it super annoying. But I like it just fine. I devoured like 70% of the book in one night, mind you. I’m just an annoying bitch who likes to complain and has a bad beef with badly(my opinion)-written “strong” FL. Thanks.
Also, who thought it was a good idea to feature that much pop-culture references, even if it was a YA book? Seriously. Who?
Aight, I don’t know enough about chess to judge if this book was chess-accurated, but I’d assumed it was. I think it was fun, it was super duper slow and hard to get into at first, but when it hit, it just hit. Like almost all her books, it had a slow start, like all her books, IT JUST FELT THE SAME.
Aight, don’t get me wrong, I love Ali Hazelwood. No matter how similar all her books were, no matter how blended in together her books have become for me, I still enjoyed it. But damn, can you really do this? Can you really just write something that has the same plot, with just a little change in the environment and characters’ names? It just feels like Multiverse at this point.
Nolan had my whole heart though. This guy, everyone, was a total simp. He was hooked. Even through Mal’s pov, we could feel how deeply he fell for her. Like this nobody girlie who appeared out of nowhere beat him in some random tournament, embarrassingly so, and he was HOOKED. Like follow-you-to-the-end kinda hook. And I loved that. A lot. He was so cute, so innocent, like he made my heart warm,reading about him.
Mal, on the other hand. GIRLIE. Ok, I almost forget how annoying YA is. How infuriating a character can be. HOW antagonizingly immature the ‘problems’ can be. Was I this annoying when I was 18?? Like I get it. She had her traumas, her problems and she was forced to grow up way too fast and truthfully, I blamed her mom for it. BUT URGHHHH. She was so annoying. Oz became my favourite character the moment he knocked some sense into her. She almost made me drop this book, just FYI. URGH.
Ok. Controversial. I love how ali talks about sexism in male-dominated industries. But. Isn’t it getting kinda repetitive that a chunk of her plots, or should I say plot, of her every single book, just centered around that? Or is it just me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love reading about it and how the characters deal with it. But it seriously is getting kinda uncreative….and I hate to say this, forced…
If you read my review, you probably think I hate this book. I don’t. I just found it super annoying. But I like it just fine. I devoured like 70% of the book in one night, mind you. I’m just an annoying bitch who likes to complain and has a bad beef with badly(my opinion)-written “strong” FL. Thanks.
Also, who thought it was a good idea to feature that much pop-culture references, even if it was a YA book? Seriously. Who?