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Book thoughts
May. 15th, 2017 01:02 pmConcourse by Santino Hassell - DNF
Recently I've been reading some of Hassell's books (see also the previous entry) since he apparently seems to be a popular MM author, but aside from Hard Wired (which he was one of the co-authors for), I'm having a hard time figuring out why he's so well-regarded, and Concourse is a pretty stark example of that for me.
(Unless his books are popular because they have copious sex scenes...)
So, Concourse. Childhood friends to lovers is one of my favorite romance tropes ever, and yet...this book didn't do it for me at all. In fact, the further I read, the LESS I understood why Val and Ashton were attracted to each other. They're completely different and don't seem to have much common ground or qualities they admire each other for. And I'm 200% NOT a fan of books that rely entirely on UST/characters who angst about not being able to bone each other for convoluted emotional reasons for most of the book. It's boring and annoying to me to read. (Like, at least give me magic or political intrigue or things blowing up to keep me otherwise entertained.)
I'm also not a fan of the way the book handled Val's demisexuality (and apparently I'm in the minority here, but oh well). First, it's kind of the "allo savior trope" (non-asexual person tells asexual person that they're asexual) that some people dislike. I'm more ambivalent about the trope myself, but I thought I'd put a warning just in case.
What bothered me a lot more was how Ashton's queer friends kept calling Val "some kind of straight"/"heteroflexible" once they hear that Val rarely dates and the only guy he's had feelings for is Ashton, even though Val himself doesn't identify as such and he's also only ever had feelings for 1 girl/woman in his life.
Yes, Ashton does tell them not to call him that, but the default assumption that asexual-spectrum identities are "some kind of straight" is extremely harmful. (It would be like calling bisexual people by default "some kind of straight.") For one, not all ace-spectrum people are heteroromantic, and erasing bi/pan-romantic aces is not cool. And assuming aromantic/aro-spec asexuals are straight is violent erasure considering that Actual Straights (heteroromantic+heterosexual people) don't consider aro-aces straight at all. But even for heteroromantic aces, some don't want to be called straight because they don't want to be lumped in with Actually Straight people when Actually Straight people are often very acephobic, including toward hetero aces.
And seriously, enough with singling out ace-spectrum identities as "some kind of straight" as opposed to every other letter under the LGBTQ+ as "queer enough." I'm really, really tired of that.
Recently I've been reading some of Hassell's books (see also the previous entry) since he apparently seems to be a popular MM author, but aside from Hard Wired (which he was one of the co-authors for), I'm having a hard time figuring out why he's so well-regarded, and Concourse is a pretty stark example of that for me.
(Unless his books are popular because they have copious sex scenes...)
So, Concourse. Childhood friends to lovers is one of my favorite romance tropes ever, and yet...this book didn't do it for me at all. In fact, the further I read, the LESS I understood why Val and Ashton were attracted to each other. They're completely different and don't seem to have much common ground or qualities they admire each other for. And I'm 200% NOT a fan of books that rely entirely on UST/characters who angst about not being able to bone each other for convoluted emotional reasons for most of the book. It's boring and annoying to me to read. (Like, at least give me magic or political intrigue or things blowing up to keep me otherwise entertained.)
I'm also not a fan of the way the book handled Val's demisexuality (and apparently I'm in the minority here, but oh well). First, it's kind of the "allo savior trope" (non-asexual person tells asexual person that they're asexual) that some people dislike. I'm more ambivalent about the trope myself, but I thought I'd put a warning just in case.
What bothered me a lot more was how Ashton's queer friends kept calling Val "some kind of straight"/"heteroflexible" once they hear that Val rarely dates and the only guy he's had feelings for is Ashton, even though Val himself doesn't identify as such and he's also only ever had feelings for 1 girl/woman in his life.
Yes, Ashton does tell them not to call him that, but the default assumption that asexual-spectrum identities are "some kind of straight" is extremely harmful. (It would be like calling bisexual people by default "some kind of straight.") For one, not all ace-spectrum people are heteroromantic, and erasing bi/pan-romantic aces is not cool. And assuming aromantic/aro-spec asexuals are straight is violent erasure considering that Actual Straights (heteroromantic+heterosexual people) don't consider aro-aces straight at all. But even for heteroromantic aces, some don't want to be called straight because they don't want to be lumped in with Actually Straight people when Actually Straight people are often very acephobic, including toward hetero aces.
And seriously, enough with singling out ace-spectrum identities as "some kind of straight" as opposed to every other letter under the LGBTQ+ as "queer enough." I'm really, really tired of that.
