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Review: Slide by Garrett Leigh
Oct. 22nd, 2017 09:17 am(Mild spoilers below)
This book was dull and boring until the 80% mark or so. It was one of those books in which one of the love interest's PTSD/past trauma was the "Big Reveal" that everything else builds up to, except the buildup was flimsy and the romance unconvincing.
[*As a side note, I'm ambivalent about "mental illness/trauma as Big Reveal" plots. I feel like, there are probably contexts in which it could be done in an okay way, but it runs the risk of treating mental illness as something Totally Shocking instead of, you know, normalizing it.]
Half of the book was in Ash's POV and half in Pete's. I don't know why there was a split. The first half, in Ash's POV, gave off weird "neurotypical savior" vibes because Ash kept having PTSD symptoms, without seeming to realize what they were, and Pete responded to them with such perfect acceptance that Ash fell for him. I don't know, the romance came off as Pete being attracted to Ash's "vulnerability" (and he more or less says so later on in the book), so it felt weird and not very romantic at all to me. I have no idea why else Pete and Ash liked each other.
The second half featured Ash's mental breakdown, except it was filtered through Pete's POV and so therefore it felt extremely detached. Also, Pete arbitrarily became a jerk and kicked Ash out because he didn't realize Ash was having a mental health breakdown, which led to Ash nearly dying just so Pete can feel sorry and guilty later.
I'm really tired of the idea of marginalized characters being subjected to violence/tragedy just so their non-marginalized love interest can feel bad and "grow" as a character. It's especially egregious here because the fact that Ash forgives Pete SO EASILY for accusing him of relapsing on drugs (when that wasn't the case) and kicking him out and not even checking to make sure Ash had somewhere else to stay was incredibly gross.
(Honestly, the book would've probably been better if the perspectives had been flipped—if it had been Pete's POV for the first half and Ash's POV for the second.)
Also, this book was incredibly sexist. Every female character other than Ellie, Ash's friend, was portrayed in a negative light in some way, and Pete and Ash kept saying things like it was "too easy" to hook up with women because *women are so shallow dontcha know* and "women can fake orgasms but men can't" (wtf???????). I had a really hard time believing the author went by she/her pronouns and still wrote this crap.
Oh, and biphobia. This book won an award for its bisexual representation and I have no idea how. This book contains, BAR NONE, the MOST grossly biphobic statement I've ever seen in my life, which is really saying something because I read a lot of trashy books with offensive content:
“Just don’t call me bisexual. I hate that damn word; it sounds like a fucking disease.”
Also, Ash and Pete kept saying things like bisexuality was an "undefined" sexual orientation, which strikes me as Not A Good Statement. Bisexuality has a definition; it's the definition of being attracted to multiple genders. The end. And while I don't feel confident commenting on this, Pete and Ash also kept saying things like they'd get super jealous if the other person was around another guy, but wouldn't mind if the other person hooked up with a woman, and I was like ???????????
This book was dull and boring until the 80% mark or so. It was one of those books in which one of the love interest's PTSD/past trauma was the "Big Reveal" that everything else builds up to, except the buildup was flimsy and the romance unconvincing.
[*As a side note, I'm ambivalent about "mental illness/trauma as Big Reveal" plots. I feel like, there are probably contexts in which it could be done in an okay way, but it runs the risk of treating mental illness as something Totally Shocking instead of, you know, normalizing it.]
Half of the book was in Ash's POV and half in Pete's. I don't know why there was a split. The first half, in Ash's POV, gave off weird "neurotypical savior" vibes because Ash kept having PTSD symptoms, without seeming to realize what they were, and Pete responded to them with such perfect acceptance that Ash fell for him. I don't know, the romance came off as Pete being attracted to Ash's "vulnerability" (and he more or less says so later on in the book), so it felt weird and not very romantic at all to me. I have no idea why else Pete and Ash liked each other.
The second half featured Ash's mental breakdown, except it was filtered through Pete's POV and so therefore it felt extremely detached. Also, Pete arbitrarily became a jerk and kicked Ash out because he didn't realize Ash was having a mental health breakdown, which led to Ash nearly dying just so Pete can feel sorry and guilty later.
I'm really tired of the idea of marginalized characters being subjected to violence/tragedy just so their non-marginalized love interest can feel bad and "grow" as a character. It's especially egregious here because the fact that Ash forgives Pete SO EASILY for accusing him of relapsing on drugs (when that wasn't the case) and kicking him out and not even checking to make sure Ash had somewhere else to stay was incredibly gross.
(Honestly, the book would've probably been better if the perspectives had been flipped—if it had been Pete's POV for the first half and Ash's POV for the second.)
Also, this book was incredibly sexist. Every female character other than Ellie, Ash's friend, was portrayed in a negative light in some way, and Pete and Ash kept saying things like it was "too easy" to hook up with women because *women are so shallow dontcha know* and "women can fake orgasms but men can't" (wtf???????). I had a really hard time believing the author went by she/her pronouns and still wrote this crap.
Oh, and biphobia. This book won an award for its bisexual representation and I have no idea how. This book contains, BAR NONE, the MOST grossly biphobic statement I've ever seen in my life, which is really saying something because I read a lot of trashy books with offensive content:
“Just don’t call me bisexual. I hate that damn word; it sounds like a fucking disease.”
Also, Ash and Pete kept saying things like bisexuality was an "undefined" sexual orientation, which strikes me as Not A Good Statement. Bisexuality has a definition; it's the definition of being attracted to multiple genders. The end. And while I don't feel confident commenting on this, Pete and Ash also kept saying things like they'd get super jealous if the other person was around another guy, but wouldn't mind if the other person hooked up with a woman, and I was like ???????????
