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A review by the_alexeli
Sweat by Jonah Yorke
3.5
Rating: 3.5/5 stars.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Okay, I know this may contradict the more average rating I gave it. But my goodness, these two made me feel so many tender things.
That being said, let me lay out the two things that lowered my rating before getting on with what I enjoyed.
Firstly, when I tell you the first 2/3 of this book was 80% sex and 20% plot, I'm being so serious. 😅 I legitimately lost count of how many times they got off in the first 40% of the book. Luckily, it was layered with either coming to terms with queerness or sweetness and tenderness that it gave it a little extra oomph. But it was so much and so often that it got repetitive and I got bored with it.
SECONDLY (and more specifically the reason for lowering the rating), the blatant misogyny. Every single female character their age were reduced to being a "slut." Literally every one of them was slutshamed. And in the LGBTQ+ college group, all of the characters in that group were men or enby individuals. Not a single lesbian, bi woman, etc was shown. It was really not cool and a piss poor decision.
ALL THAT BEING SAID. I reeaaallly enjoyed the progression of Tommy and Rowan's relationship, as well as the story, once it started to be told in the second half. Those two guys were so sweet together once we got past the internalized homophobia (which was part of the plot and I thought handled pretty well), and they were so good to each other and for each other. Also, some of the points made in the writing about being a part of the queer community really it close to home.
If we could have gotten rid of 100 pages of the sex (there still would have been PLENTY left, I'm not even joking 😅😅), and completely erased the misogyny entirely, this probably would have been close to a 5 star read for me.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Okay, I know this may contradict the more average rating I gave it. But my goodness, these two made me feel so many tender things.
That being said, let me lay out the two things that lowered my rating before getting on with what I enjoyed.
Firstly, when I tell you the first 2/3 of this book was 80% sex and 20% plot, I'm being so serious. 😅 I legitimately lost count of how many times they got off in the first 40% of the book. Luckily, it was layered with either coming to terms with queerness or sweetness and tenderness that it gave it a little extra oomph. But it was so much and so often that it got repetitive and I got bored with it.
SECONDLY (and more specifically the reason for lowering the rating), the blatant misogyny. Every single female character their age were reduced to being a "slut." Literally every one of them was slutshamed. And in the LGBTQ+ college group, all of the characters in that group were men or enby individuals. Not a single lesbian, bi woman, etc was shown. It was really not cool and a piss poor decision.
ALL THAT BEING SAID. I reeaaallly enjoyed the progression of Tommy and Rowan's relationship, as well as the story, once it started to be told in the second half. Those two guys were so sweet together once we got past the internalized homophobia (which was part of the plot and I thought handled pretty well), and they were so good to each other and for each other. Also, some of the points made in the writing about being a part of the queer community really it close to home.
If we could have gotten rid of 100 pages of the sex (there still would have been PLENTY left, I'm not even joking 😅😅), and completely erased the misogyny entirely, this probably would have been close to a 5 star read for me.