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frannook's reviews
39 reviews
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley
I'd love to have a gay eccentric I-don't-care-what-anyone-says aunt like Iona, that's who I want/hope to be when I'm 50+ years old!
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Darling, what's the point of being alive if you go through life unnoticed, without standing out and making waves?
[...]
They want us to be small, so we have to stand tall.
They want us to be invisible, so we have to be seen.
They want us to be silent, so we have to be heard.
They want us to surrender, so we have to fight.
The only way to be guaranteed a failure is not to try.
I'd love to have a gay eccentric I-don't-care-what-anyone-says aunt like Iona, that's who I want/hope to be when I'm 50+ years old!
More thoughts to come soon...
Content Warnings
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Mental illness
Minor: Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt
Different for Boys by Patrick Ness
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
How do you even talk about this book.. I really don't know.
Throughout almost the entire book, I was feeling sick to my stomach, nauseous, disgusted and angry at how far fear can push people, scare them into being the worst human beings, harmful to themselves and to others.
And yet... and yet.
Hidden between the lines, peaking from the pages... there's a tender care.
There's loneliness, that desperate search to find a place where you belong.
There's a need for someone that will understand what you're feeling and who you are while being terrified of showing and being who you truly are.
There's humor.
There's a challenge to heteronormative ideas of sexuality and relationships.
There's a challenge to taboos whose existence doesn't make any sense.
There are questions about those taboos, questions about your identity and questions about what makes you "you" and what your actions make of you.
It all starts with an apparently simple but actually quite complicated issue: when does a queer person stop being a virgin? What does and does not constitute as "sex" for them?
And, most importantly, does it even matter?
Patrick Ness takes that issue and weaves it into a story that is meta and fiction and friendship and laughs and tears and, as always, creates something brilliant that is life and gives life.
Throughout almost the entire book, I was feeling sick to my stomach, nauseous, disgusted and angry at how far fear can push people, scare them into being the worst human beings, harmful to themselves and to others.
And yet... and yet.
Hidden between the lines, peaking from the pages... there's a tender care.
There's loneliness, that desperate search to find a place where you belong.
There's a need for someone that will understand what you're feeling and who you are while being terrified of showing and being who you truly are.
There's humor.
There's a challenge to heteronormative ideas of sexuality and relationships.
There's a challenge to taboos whose existence doesn't make any sense.
There are questions about those taboos, questions about your identity and questions about what makes you "you" and what your actions make of you.
It all starts with an apparently simple but actually quite complicated issue: when does a queer person stop being a virgin? What does and does not constitute as "sex" for them?
And, most importantly, does it even matter?
Patrick Ness takes that issue and weaves it into a story that is meta and fiction and friendship and laughs and tears and, as always, creates something brilliant that is life and gives life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying and Homophobia
Moderate: Outing
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
funny
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Never fear a new beginning. One chapter must end for another to begin.
I need to get notebook wherein I can write and collect all Molly's grandmonther's sayings because they are lovely and intelligent and deep and precious and I just love them, okay?
In The mystery guest we are once again back in the Regency Hotel where Molly has now been promoted to head-maid: she is in charge of all the maids, valued and appreciated by the hotel manager Mr. Snow and her coworkers and has even written a handbook for the Regency Hotel maids.
Her boyfriend Juan has left for Mexico to go visit his family and she is busy with preparing the brand-new renovated hotel's decadent tearoom for a big event: the mysterious author JD Grimthorpe will address for the first time his adoring fans to give a big announcement.
Unfortunately, just when he's about to reveal his secret, he takes a sip from his cup of tea and immediately drops dead, right there in front of readers, journalists and hotel's personell.
And who had prepared the tea cart? So it is that Molly and her maid in training Lily find themselves once more at the center of a police investigation.
What can I say, I just love Molly as a character and I love the whole cast of characters, particularly Molly's grandmother - yes, because even though she died even before the beginning of the first book, she is right there in every moment and every page, never leaving Molly, always offering words of encouragement or having the right saying for every situation in which Molly finds herself in.
It is such a great cozy mystery series, with such good and lovable characters and appealing settings, filled with drama and it perfectly balances more serious topics (such as child abandonment, sexual assault, drug use, grief ) with humor and lightheartedness, which is not at all an easy task!
I truly deeply hope that this is not the last we see of Molly and that her adventures will continue in other books!
... About that. I do have a suggestion for the third book, so follow me okay?
Dear Nita Prose, just get rid of Juan. Nobody cares about him and there's no chemistry there. But Molly and Detective Stark?! I can totally see Molly as a neurodivergent bisexual woman (a great and quite common intersectionality) and Detective Stark as a fearsome butch!
Like, it's an enemies to lovers that writes itself, the foundation was so clearly there on a silver platter in this volume.
All you have to do is give it a little push and there we have it, a third book with a budding sapphic romance between Molly the officer in training and Detective Stark! Pretty please?!
In The mystery guest we are once again back in the Regency Hotel where Molly has now been promoted to head-maid: she is in charge of all the maids, valued and appreciated by the hotel manager Mr. Snow and her coworkers and has even written a handbook for the Regency Hotel maids.
Her boyfriend Juan has left for Mexico to go visit his family and she is busy with preparing the brand-new renovated hotel's decadent tearoom for a big event: the mysterious author JD Grimthorpe will address for the first time his adoring fans to give a big announcement.
Unfortunately, just when he's about to reveal his secret, he takes a sip from his cup of tea and immediately drops dead, right there in front of readers, journalists and hotel's personell.
And who had prepared the tea cart? So it is that Molly and her maid in training Lily find themselves once more at the center of a police investigation.
What can I say, I just love Molly as a character and I love the whole cast of characters, particularly Molly's grandmother - yes, because even though she died even before the beginning of the first book, she is right there in every moment and every page, never leaving Molly, always offering words of encouragement or having the right saying for every situation in which Molly finds herself in.
It is such a great cozy mystery series, with such good and lovable characters and appealing settings, filled with drama and it perfectly balances more serious topics (such as child abandonment, sexual assault, drug use, grief ) with humor and lightheartedness, which is not at all an easy task!
I truly deeply hope that this is not the last we see of Molly and that her adventures will continue in other books!
... About that. I do have a suggestion for the third book, so follow me okay?
Dear Nita Prose, just get rid of Juan. Nobody cares about him and there's no chemistry there. But Molly and Detective Stark?! I can totally see Molly as a neurodivergent bisexual woman (a great and quite common intersectionality) and Detective Stark as a fearsome butch!
Like, it's an enemies to lovers that writes itself, the foundation was so clearly there on a silver platter in this volume.
All you have to do is give it a little push and there we have it, a third book with a budding sapphic romance between Molly the officer in training and Detective Stark! Pretty please?!
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Death, and Murder
Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
HOLY SMOKES. THE DRAMA, THE PINING, THE FRIENDSHIP AND CHIVALRY!!!!
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE.
More coherent thoughts coming tomorrow!
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE.
More coherent thoughts coming tomorrow!
Content Warnings
Minor: Death of parent, War, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
Okay, Cupid by Mason Deaver
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Ugh I'm so frustrated, I was so ready to love this one to bits and yet... too many shortcomings and things I just can't get over.
I'm dreading this but okay, I'm ready. Let's get down to business.
Jude is an agender Cupid (they/them) who is on probation because he fell in love with a boy and ended up kissing him - which, as you can imagine - is a pretty big nono in the Cupids community. But they took some more classes, paid their dues, and are now ready for their next assignment: bringing together trans boy Huy and his ex-best-friend-who-secretly-had-a-crush-on-him, Alice. They have one month to enroll in their high school, become their friend and figuring out how to make them talk to each other again and bring the spark back.
However, the more they get to know Huy, the more they are captivated by this beautiful, sweet, kind Vietnamese boy and they are dreading the moment the mission will be completed and they'll have to leave behind their new teenage, the boy they're falling for and their new best friends and forever forgotten.
I will say right off the bat one incredible positive thing about Mason Deaver's books: whether I love them with my whole heart (The feeling of falling in love) or I find them just okay (I wish you all the best), they're always so bingeable - you could easily read them in one sitting or in a couple of days because they flow so well and have an addictive sort of component to them that I can't quite explain but somehow works! Especially when they nail the audiobook narrator, which is the case with this one because my goodness Meyers Max was just incredible and totally deserves recognition.
HOWEVER. If you put aside for a moment the wonderfully done trans rep (and queer rep in general), the book is pretty average, eye-roll inducing and contains many YA tropes and elements I thought we would have left behind by now.
The first thing that annoyed me quite a bit is the same thing that made (or, better yet, was supposed to make) this book unique: the Cupids.
Mason Deaver decided to introduce a sort of magical/paranormal (??) element to the story by having Cupid characters but somehow forgot to give us any relevant information on them, no worldbuilding, no explanation as to why they exist or how they came to exist or even more generally how the whole Cupid business works.
All we know is that they're not human (and yet they live on Earth, do not have any specific magical powers/abilities and eat/sleep/walk like all human beings?!) and that they get assigned to couples to bring them together.
Uhm okay. Is that supposed to be sufficient?
- How about where do the assignment come from? What is the criteria for giving out these assignments? Is it believable that a teen Cupid gets assigned an adult couple? Mmm.
- Where do the Cupids come from? The only bit of information we're given about this is that Jude was taken by their family and they don't remember their parents. Does that mean you become a Cupid? Are you born a Cupid and can you be born from humans? Do those humans know or do Cupids make forget them all about their newborn child? Or, if the parents are also Cupids, then why are the newborn Cupids taken away from their parents?
- Where do they get the money from to live on Earth and pay rent? Are they angels and is there a bank in Heaven to which they can bill their expenses? Because Jude and Lia (their handler/fake sister/supervisor) live in an apartment in San Francisco and they're renting it from someone and they go to restaurants and eat food so there has to be money involved, right?
And so many many more questions that you can't but ask yourself and you get no answer to whatsoever throughout the novel and, I'm sorry, but that bothered me quite a bit because if you decide to not write just a contemporary novel but to add something different to it... well, then I want you to do it properly and in a way that can satisfy the suspension of disbelief and make it realistic and believable to me when I'm reading it.
The second thing that annoyed me to no end is something that is - very unfortunately - pretty common in young adult books but that I really was not expecting to find here is the cluelessness of the MC to their love interest's crush.
The synopsis reads (and I quote): "As a cupid, Jude thinks they understand love a little bit more than the average human. It makes sense -- Jude's been studying love their whole teen life", which makes sense, right?
And YET Jude is completely blind to the fact that Huy pretty much obviously only has eyes for them and Alice is developing a crush for someone else and thatCal was so clearly in love with them and that's why he was acting jealous and following them everywhere , like hello? Were you not supposed to be an expert at all things love related?!
That plus the oh so lovely (I'm being sarcastic) YA trope that you're a teenager, you've known someone for less than a month and you already know for sure you're in love and you might be together forever and you're willing to give up everything and everyone you know for that person... Yup, that too.
The last thing that sealed the "this Mason Deaver book wasn't really it for me" deal was the ending.
What kind of ending was that. In a way, it was coherent with the very few rules about the Cupids world that had been explained (aka:if you fall in love with a human and kiss them for a second time, they'll forget about you and you will forget you were ever a Cupid and thus Jude kissed Huy, Huy forgot Jude and Jude forgot they were a Cupid and that Cupids at all exist ), but at the same time it opened the door to so many more questions related to this alternate reality of our world that the author created and with a deus ex machina sort of twist it further compromised the precarious believability left in the story. It felt like an easy, unsatisfying - and perhaps the only one possible? - way out.
For those who have read (and finished) the book or don't care about spoilers →Jude forgot they were ever a Cupid and they're about to leave with Lia for Washington. They're now living the lie they had told at Hurst, that Lia was their sister and they were homeschooled after their parents' disappearance. Is this something Jude chose when they were kissing Huy or is it just the consequence of kissing a human for the second time? Yes, Cal (I'm guessing it was Cal) sends the letter to both Jude and Huy and they meet at the bench. Is it realistic to think that these two strangers meet for the first time when Jude is moving to another state and they'll somehow start a long distance relationship based on Idk what for Idk how long?! Even a hopeless romantic like me struggles to believe that.
Also, I've been noticing that all the characters in Mason Deaver's books kinda feel like one and the same? Personality-wise.
Of course, if you only pick up one book you won't notice and you'll just enjoy while you're along for the ride, but if you are a hardcore reader that reads anything and everything their favorite author writes, you'll have a hard time telling apart a Jude Ritchie from a Ben De Backer, or a Huy from a Nathan. Yes, their personal stories are different and the way they live and portray their transness and gender identity (clothes, make up, nail polish and so on), but when you exclusively focus on the personality... can you honestly tell me who's who? I'm not quite so sure about that.
I know it seems like I'm destroying this book: I'm not. I had a good time, I listened to it whenever I could and I was involved in the story and the characters' lives and I was rooting for them and so on and so forth.
I'm just speaking like someone who deeply believes this author can do and accomplish so much and had great expectations from this book but ultimately ended up being disappointed as a result. This felt like not one but 10 steps back from what they had done in The feeling of falling in love and that's what I wanted to find in here and didn't.
I'll keep reading whatever Mason Deaver comes out next and I hope they'll keep on growing as an author and publish so many more great queer stories but this one undoubtedly is my least favorite book by them.
I'm dreading this but okay, I'm ready. Let's get down to business.
Jude is an agender Cupid (they/them) who is on probation because he fell in love with a boy and ended up kissing him - which, as you can imagine - is a pretty big nono in the Cupids community. But they took some more classes, paid their dues, and are now ready for their next assignment: bringing together trans boy Huy and his ex-best-friend-who-secretly-had-a-crush-on-him, Alice. They have one month to enroll in their high school, become their friend and figuring out how to make them talk to each other again and bring the spark back.
However, the more they get to know Huy, the more they are captivated by this beautiful, sweet, kind Vietnamese boy and they are dreading the moment the mission will be completed and they'll have to leave behind their new teenage, the boy they're falling for and their new best friends and forever forgotten.
I will say right off the bat one incredible positive thing about Mason Deaver's books: whether I love them with my whole heart (The feeling of falling in love) or I find them just okay (I wish you all the best), they're always so bingeable - you could easily read them in one sitting or in a couple of days because they flow so well and have an addictive sort of component to them that I can't quite explain but somehow works! Especially when they nail the audiobook narrator, which is the case with this one because my goodness Meyers Max was just incredible and totally deserves recognition.
HOWEVER. If you put aside for a moment the wonderfully done trans rep (and queer rep in general), the book is pretty average, eye-roll inducing and contains many YA tropes and elements I thought we would have left behind by now.
The first thing that annoyed me quite a bit is the same thing that made (or, better yet, was supposed to make) this book unique: the Cupids.
Mason Deaver decided to introduce a sort of magical/paranormal (??) element to the story by having Cupid characters but somehow forgot to give us any relevant information on them, no worldbuilding, no explanation as to why they exist or how they came to exist or even more generally how the whole Cupid business works.
All we know is that they're not human (and yet they live on Earth, do not have any specific magical powers/abilities and eat/sleep/walk like all human beings?!) and that they get assigned to couples to bring them together.
Uhm okay. Is that supposed to be sufficient?
- How about where do the assignment come from? What is the criteria for giving out these assignments? Is it believable that a teen Cupid gets assigned an adult couple? Mmm.
- Where do the Cupids come from? The only bit of information we're given about this is that Jude was taken by their family and they don't remember their parents. Does that mean you become a Cupid? Are you born a Cupid and can you be born from humans? Do those humans know or do Cupids make forget them all about their newborn child? Or, if the parents are also Cupids, then why are the newborn Cupids taken away from their parents?
- Where do they get the money from to live on Earth and pay rent? Are they angels and is there a bank in Heaven to which they can bill their expenses? Because Jude and Lia (their handler/fake sister/supervisor) live in an apartment in San Francisco and they're renting it from someone and they go to restaurants and eat food so there has to be money involved, right?
And so many many more questions that you can't but ask yourself and you get no answer to whatsoever throughout the novel and, I'm sorry, but that bothered me quite a bit because if you decide to not write just a contemporary novel but to add something different to it... well, then I want you to do it properly and in a way that can satisfy the suspension of disbelief and make it realistic and believable to me when I'm reading it.
The second thing that annoyed me to no end is something that is - very unfortunately - pretty common in young adult books but that I really was not expecting to find here is the cluelessness of the MC to their love interest's crush.
The synopsis reads (and I quote): "As a cupid, Jude thinks they understand love a little bit more than the average human. It makes sense -- Jude's been studying love their whole teen life", which makes sense, right?
And YET Jude is completely blind to the fact that Huy pretty much obviously only has eyes for them and Alice is developing a crush for someone else and that
That plus the oh so lovely (I'm being sarcastic) YA trope that you're a teenager, you've known someone for less than a month and you already know for sure you're in love and you might be together forever and you're willing to give up everything and everyone you know for that person... Yup, that too.
The last thing that sealed the "this Mason Deaver book wasn't really it for me" deal was the ending.
What kind of ending was that. In a way, it was coherent with the very few rules about the Cupids world that had been explained (aka:
For those who have read (and finished) the book or don't care about spoilers →
Also, I've been noticing that all the characters in Mason Deaver's books kinda feel like one and the same? Personality-wise.
Of course, if you only pick up one book you won't notice and you'll just enjoy while you're along for the ride, but if you are a hardcore reader that reads anything and everything their favorite author writes, you'll have a hard time telling apart a Jude Ritchie from a Ben De Backer, or a Huy from a Nathan. Yes, their personal stories are different and the way they live and portray their transness and gender identity (clothes, make up, nail polish and so on), but when you exclusively focus on the personality... can you honestly tell me who's who? I'm not quite so sure about that.
I know it seems like I'm destroying this book: I'm not. I had a good time, I listened to it whenever I could and I was involved in the story and the characters' lives and I was rooting for them and so on and so forth.
I'm just speaking like someone who deeply believes this author can do and accomplish so much and had great expectations from this book but ultimately ended up being disappointed as a result. This felt like not one but 10 steps back from what they had done in The feeling of falling in love and that's what I wanted to find in here and didn't.
I'll keep reading whatever Mason Deaver comes out next and I hope they'll keep on growing as an author and publish so many more great queer stories but this one undoubtedly is my least favorite book by them.
Content Warnings
Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Panic attacks/disorders
Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
More thoughts to come soon but I'll say this: it was far from perfect but this cast of characters was so on point and so easy to fall in love with that it kind of made of for all the other things that didn't quite work.
If you like those Christmas comedies and if you'd like to read a delightfully queer book that feels like watching a Christmas movie, this is where it's at!
If you like those Christmas comedies and if you'd like to read a delightfully queer book that feels like watching a Christmas movie, this is where it's at!
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing
Feelings: A Story in Seasons by Manjit Thapp
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
STUNNING.
I loved how she played with image compositions and palettes.
And just a few short sentences here and there, but what a gut punch they delivered.
A quiet, sensitive yet so simple and unguarded way to talk about anxiety and mental health.
Absolutely recommended to everyone, particularly those who have experienced or want to read about seasonal depression.
I loved how she played with image compositions and palettes.
And just a few short sentences here and there, but what a gut punch they delivered.
A quiet, sensitive yet so simple and unguarded way to talk about anxiety and mental health.
Absolutely recommended to everyone, particularly those who have experienced or want to read about seasonal depression.
Harmony and Heartbreak by Claire Kann
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
I was pretty disappointed by this, to be honest.
It's about these 2 young girls - cousins - who have the magic to create the chance for people to fall in love, they're sort of Cupids in a way but in a more consensual sort of way? Anyways.
What drawn me to it was that it gave me Zack & Cody vibes. Two cousins basically brought up like sisters, who live in a hotel and find themselves in messy situations. Great, right?
But that's where the appeal ended and so did my enjoyment of the story.
Right from the very beginning, I had the impression that these relationships were forced on me? ("me" as in "the reader"). Cora didn't seem to be interested in boys and yet, at the first chance the author got, there you have it, a boy who talks to her once and now we have a love interest situation that had no business being there, it was so unnecessary.
And the second thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how all the relationships portrayed (the parents, Cora and the boy, the couples the two Cupids are making fall in love) were 100% straight and Claire Kann has so far written YA books with queer characters, so why stop now? Only because it is a middle grade book instead of a YA? Because we couldn't entertain the idea of having queer kids or having queer couples the kids could come in contact with? It really, really irked me.
I dnf'ed on third of the way through.
It's about these 2 young girls - cousins - who have the magic to create the chance for people to fall in love, they're sort of Cupids in a way but in a more consensual sort of way? Anyways.
What drawn me to it was that it gave me Zack & Cody vibes. Two cousins basically brought up like sisters, who live in a hotel and find themselves in messy situations. Great, right?
But that's where the appeal ended and so did my enjoyment of the story.
Right from the very beginning, I had the impression that these relationships were forced on me? ("me" as in "the reader"). Cora didn't seem to be interested in boys and yet, at the first chance the author got, there you have it, a boy who talks to her once and now we have a love interest situation that had no business being there, it was so unnecessary.
And the second thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how all the relationships portrayed (the parents, Cora and the boy, the couples the two Cupids are making fall in love) were 100% straight and Claire Kann has so far written YA books with queer characters, so why stop now? Only because it is a middle grade book instead of a YA? Because we couldn't entertain the idea of having queer kids or having queer couples the kids could come in contact with? It really, really irked me.
I dnf'ed on third of the way through.
Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 13%.
I cannot speak to the Caribbean rep - though, after reading Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, it gave me the impression that it wasn't well done, particularly the accent of the narrator chosen for the audiobook. Choosing a Caribbean-American narrator was too much effort?Again, Black Cake was right there.
Anyways. The reasons why I dnf'd:
1. the sheer naivete and ingenuity of the main character that almost bordered on stupidity and I couldn't get over it; that whole speech about community and the need to point out that yes, they were Caribbean but hey they had their American citizenship and they integrated well and wanted to share their culture with... ugh, please. Just spare me. When these themes are shoved down your throat in such a blatant way, it means you as a writer are failing. You aren't able to create nuances, to show it and have it come to the surface to the pages instead of telling it point blank. Nope.
2. the way in which Claudio Fabrizi was your typical cookie-cutter overbearing villan with no layers whatsoever just pissed me off. It was so extreme and cartoonish I was picturing foam at his mouth and his face as read as a tomato, it was so utterly unbelievable and annoying.
I couldn't bring myself to keep going. Noppity nope.
Anyways. The reasons why I dnf'd:
1. the sheer naivete and ingenuity of the main character that almost bordered on stupidity and I couldn't get over it; that whole speech about community and the need to point out that yes, they were Caribbean but hey they had their American citizenship and they integrated well and wanted to share their culture with... ugh, please. Just spare me. When these themes are shoved down your throat in such a blatant way, it means you as a writer are failing. You aren't able to create nuances, to show it and have it come to the surface to the pages instead of telling it point blank. Nope.
2. the way in which Claudio Fabrizi was your typical cookie-cutter overbearing villan with no layers whatsoever just pissed me off. It was so extreme and cartoonish I was picturing foam at his mouth and his face as read as a tomato, it was so utterly unbelievable and annoying.
I couldn't bring myself to keep going. Noppity nope.
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