honestly i don't even know how to feel abt this book. initially i wasn't gonna review it or stop reading but i literally couldn't continue once it leaned into the weird age gap shit. like i'm so mixed abt this book its insane. the prose is amazing aside from the fact that the author wrote "she took a breath she didn't realize she was holding" which??? HELLO UR WRITING AN ADULT LITERARY NOVEL NOT A YA. the characters r very lovable, esp nasir and joy but i def feel like the meet cutes happened way too fast and like?? why is it that the only lesbian character that isnt a side character or a gay man/bisexual character, minor character or not, doesnt get to have a happy ending just bc shes in love w married women???? like i appreciate the fact that the author wants to write messy characters who dont have their own best interests in mind esp since theres so much saturated wholesome content where lgbt+ characters cant be messy or flawed but idk theres a way to go abt it. nasir, while desperate at first, i felt was gonna end up being a great love interest even though theyre starting slow and even if they didnt end up together, i would have been completely fine w that but they just HAD to ruin the set up w his father???? whos 20 years older than feyi???? wtf. i expected a romance and i mostly got sex/makeout scenes. like. there seems to be no romance in this book aside from flirting its insane. these ppl dont act their ages, they act like 15 y/os going thru puberty LMAO. also its weird how the book would go from these characters feeling realistic to as one dimensional as cardboard. like im not gonna lie!! there r some scenes that i enjoyed such as joy and feyi's interactions and her interactions with nasir, the way the author describes grief and trauma, and her dedication to her art cause that's how the author ALSO creates their art, but it all goes down the drain in like. five seconds. idk as an aspiring lgbt+ author i honestly expected better from a nonbinary author of color but this rlly feels like its written by someone who Isn't any of those things. also??? the fucking quip from joy saying crazy is an ableist slur????? HELLO. as a mentally ill/nd person i think thats so absurd and def broke me out of the immersion. anyway uhh if u want a mid experience then uhh read this book?? but also Don't, unless u wanna read what u want to Avoid in a romance. 2/5 i hope their other works r better

Flèche by Mary Jean Chan

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challenging emotional inspiring fast-paced