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braincell4rent 's review for:
Olympic Enemies
by Rebecca J. Caffery
*To our Lord NetGalley I praise and thank for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review*
This has been a disaster. I came here thinking I would read a nice story about grown up atletes with a cozy romance and an interesting insight of how the Olympics (or at least the dynamic in trainings) work. Sadly, I got nothing of that.
Hear me out, this novel is a compendium of clichés where most main characters are between 24 and 26 years old yet they all behave as if they were 15. They all think with their crotch and I´m not even kidding, what are their hobbies or the things they like? I couldn´t even tell even if you directed this questions to what the main character´s hobbies are. And that´s because reading the novel we see nothing at all. Even when we direct out attention towards the sport they practice, this book is 5% of sports and 95% of all characters talking about romance or trying to ship Oliver and Lucas for no reason at all... and nothing else. It´s like no one has a life outside that circle.
Oh, and the enemies to lovers is another thing that pissed me off. Say, does anyone of you know why the hell they got along badly? Because I didn´t understand. All the book mentions is some kind of physical fight... And then the fact that they´re so different from each other (which makes absolutely no sense, for fvck´s sake, you don´t go around punching people for not being like you, much less spend your time ignoring or saying you don´t get along with someone when you´re in the freaking same team in the Olympics).
But then again, no surprises whatsoever.
Oliver is the cliché of a sportsman: Handsome and popular. I thought he was nice at first, but my impression of him changed the second we switched from conciliator captain of the team to 100% horny teenager (am I the only person who thought the first sexual encounter he had with Oliver was pretty close to abuse? Because Lucas verbally said he wasn´t sure about doing that, and Oliver convinced him). Also, another problem I had with Oliver is that I found him quite unbeliavable (well, not only him, more characters), to be specific in this case, because of all the trauma with his ex. Like, are you seriousle trying to make me believe a person who lost his partner in such an abrupt and tragic way not only is ready to start something with someone else so soon but also has no quarrels to proposing a relationship of friends with benefits with someone who isn´t even sure of what he wants? Excuse me, but wtf is this.
Lucas is the cliché of uncomprehended gay nerd. I never understood why his love and sexual life was the focus of the entire story. Like, not only when speaking with his friends and family, but also to the exterior world. Like, hello? It´s 2023! Stop fetishizing gay people. Why the need to know who they hook up with? Would you do that with a hetero person? Dude, when I got to the part where the press releases the fact Oliver and Lucas are sort of dating I was thinking, "and why tf would I care?" even when I literally read almost 200 pages of them both and was supposed to care (only in theory, you see).
Also, what´s with Lucas as a character? He was such a brat since the beginning! He had no intention of getting along with his teammates (which I found extremely weird even though I don´t practice any sport, is it normal to send a team who doesn´t get along well to a competition? Let alone the Olympics, this doesn´t seem professional to me). But the thing is that not only Lucas doesn´t even try, is that there´s a lot of times during the plot when it looks like he´s not even interested in his career as atlete. As if he were there just for the sake of being. That and behaving like a martyr (I was so put off with this, personally), acting like: "poor me, I have to be an atlete in the Olympics because I need to provide for my mother and sisters, cause my dad left when I was a kid and we were so poor". Like, duuuuude! How much are you getting paid right now? What are your wages? Also your twin sis works as a nurse. Your mother owns a pub. Are you telling me you guys are still poor and cannot even aford a couple of plane tickets and an hotel room for two weeks? Fvck off.
Anyway, I´ll stop with my rambling now.
Overall I found this book disrespectful to anyone who actually practices any sports at all but... I think if you like YA you might enjoy it nonetheless because it´s easy to read.
This has been a disaster. I came here thinking I would read a nice story about grown up atletes with a cozy romance and an interesting insight of how the Olympics (or at least the dynamic in trainings) work. Sadly, I got nothing of that.
Hear me out, this novel is a compendium of clichés where most main characters are between 24 and 26 years old yet they all behave as if they were 15. They all think with their crotch and I´m not even kidding, what are their hobbies or the things they like? I couldn´t even tell even if you directed this questions to what the main character´s hobbies are. And that´s because reading the novel we see nothing at all. Even when we direct out attention towards the sport they practice, this book is 5% of sports and 95% of all characters talking about romance or trying to ship Oliver and Lucas for no reason at all... and nothing else. It´s like no one has a life outside that circle.
Oh, and the enemies to lovers is another thing that pissed me off. Say, does anyone of you know why the hell they got along badly? Because I didn´t understand. All the book mentions is some kind of physical fight... And then the fact that they´re so different from each other (which makes absolutely no sense, for fvck´s sake, you don´t go around punching people for not being like you, much less spend your time ignoring or saying you don´t get along with someone when you´re in the freaking same team in the Olympics).
But then again, no surprises whatsoever.
Oliver is the cliché of a sportsman: Handsome and popular. I thought he was nice at first, but my impression of him changed the second we switched from conciliator captain of the team to 100% horny teenager (am I the only person who thought the first sexual encounter he had with Oliver was pretty close to abuse? Because Lucas verbally said he wasn´t sure about doing that, and Oliver convinced him). Also, another problem I had with Oliver is that I found him quite unbeliavable (well, not only him, more characters), to be specific in this case, because of all the trauma with his ex. Like, are you seriousle trying to make me believe a person who lost his partner in such an abrupt and tragic way not only is ready to start something with someone else so soon but also has no quarrels to proposing a relationship of friends with benefits with someone who isn´t even sure of what he wants? Excuse me, but wtf is this.
Lucas is the cliché of uncomprehended gay nerd. I never understood why his love and sexual life was the focus of the entire story. Like, not only when speaking with his friends and family, but also to the exterior world. Like, hello? It´s 2023! Stop fetishizing gay people. Why the need to know who they hook up with? Would you do that with a hetero person? Dude, when I got to the part where the press releases the fact Oliver and Lucas are sort of dating I was thinking, "and why tf would I care?" even when I literally read almost 200 pages of them both and was supposed to care (only in theory, you see).
Also, what´s with Lucas as a character? He was such a brat since the beginning! He had no intention of getting along with his teammates (which I found extremely weird even though I don´t practice any sport, is it normal to send a team who doesn´t get along well to a competition? Let alone the Olympics, this doesn´t seem professional to me). But the thing is that not only Lucas doesn´t even try, is that there´s a lot of times during the plot when it looks like he´s not even interested in his career as atlete. As if he were there just for the sake of being. That and behaving like a martyr (I was so put off with this, personally), acting like: "poor me, I have to be an atlete in the Olympics because I need to provide for my mother and sisters, cause my dad left when I was a kid and we were so poor". Like, duuuuude! How much are you getting paid right now? What are your wages? Also your twin sis works as a nurse. Your mother owns a pub. Are you telling me you guys are still poor and cannot even aford a couple of plane tickets and an hotel room for two weeks? Fvck off.
Anyway, I´ll stop with my rambling now.
Overall I found this book disrespectful to anyone who actually practices any sports at all but... I think if you like YA you might enjoy it nonetheless because it´s easy to read.