Ryuhi

It's okay, just a bit shallow

Reviewed: 10-29-24

The book has overall likable characters, there is some relatable personal conflict and the characters had okay chemistry, just, it all left me feeling like it was a bit shallow.

Any time we get a relationship conflict, it kinda feels a bit forced, resolves really easily and does not really get you interested. The eventual big outside conflict at the end also just, well, felt both predictable and forced at the same time. It was predictable because it was pretty much the only thing with any possible buildup, no red herrings, nothing, but at the same time, barring the trope of this, there also was not really any great reason for it being the way it was (being vague to avoid spoilers).

The book seems perfectly okay in terms of writing, the narrator is doing his job and the sex scenes felt good.

It just kinda lacked anything to really get you hooked.

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Not enough on the focal matter

Reviewed: 03-16-22

The book starts with Mattingly talking about other cases and I think my issues with it start there: As much as it may be insightful to know about the background of the officers, what sort of attitude they would develop and all that, it seems not sufficiently pertinent to the case at hand.

And this continues throughout the book.
It gives a lot of details about things that happened before and after, it provides some definitely not uninteresting thoughts on things that are important to how the case was handled, but for the case itself, there is little that really is new and the points that are brought up (especially in regards to Kenneth Walker), I really, really would like a much more objective take with sources, with witnesses and without any room for doubt.

Having read all of it, I do not feel I am closer to knowing the truth of what actually happened that night and that was rather what I had been hoping for.

If you want to get a bit of an insight into Mattingly's situation and that of those around him, this book will be useful, if you mainly want information on the case, I do not think i can recommend it.

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Decent start, but ended up not finishing it

Reviewed: 11-09-21

One thing first. As noted, there are audio quality issues. They are distracting, but not too bad at least.

I did start out rather liking the characters and dynamic, things seemed promising enough.
I found John's character rather enjoyable and Chase and his boyhood crush on his best friend felt quite relatable.

But as soon as he sets out, meeting new people, it drops off. The newly introduced characters neither really feel like real people nor seem to fit the tone of the sort of fantasy world it seems to be all too well.

A fantasy world should feel authentic and believable and this one seemed to devolve into something that felt more like a modern cartoon in terms of tone.

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Decent Story with Endearing Characters, but..

Reviewed: 05-26-20

What I liked best overall was the dynamic with the Main Character and his friends.
It was cute and a bit silly in a slightly over the top fashion.
It did work well enough and it actually felt "wolfy".
And with all the werewolf books that seem to mostly want "alpha and omega" and chosen mates, it is nice to have characters who have some endearing wolf pup like quirks and at least enough shifting to make it fun.

...but with certain aspects like talking about consent, toxic relationship and gas lighting, things kinda felt a bit heavy handed and sometimes even botched in execution.
You cannot first make a big thing about how important consent is and then build up some side character as being great for giving you what you need, not what you asked for.
Sorry, but decide whether consent is important or whether it is okay to just push ahead.

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Too over the top - too little substance

Reviewed: 05-26-20

The book just lost me pretty quickly.
The main character had the "broken genius" just on a bit too thick.
I found myself feeling the most sympathy with the bitchy female head of the organization, not sure if that was intended.

The five students all seemed just too extreme for me to take seriously.
They did not really feel like real people to me.

The supernatural stuff just was too excessive in the power level and too lacking in interesting development to keep me interested.
And neither did it really give enough of a secy vibe to compensate.

In summary, there just wasn't anything to keep me going, so I will be returning this.

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Overall feels like a Rehash of book 2

Reviewed: 03-16-20

It is a bit hard to say this without spoiling things. but after the second book this one seemed to go for very similar themes while being worse at it in pretty much every way.

Book 2 gave me an understandable situation, a relatable motive and the kind of ending that seemed right for that type of story.

This one just feels too blunt and too sympathetic towards moralistic violence and I frankly find that rather off putting.

...and a pervasive type casting of criminal in a detective story series just is not good writing.
Sorry, but the mystery should not simply be solvable by identifying the character who fits the same character type as the murderers in the last two books.

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Guilt Complex meets abusive relationship

Reviewed: 09-25-19

This is one of those romances which seem to be fine for some, but rub other the wrong way - very much so for me.

I have been in similar situations to Tim - and I think they had much less justification.
And if I acted like Tim, I would be utterly ashamed of being such a pathetic piece of self centered garbage.
If their first sex is supposed to be hot and emotionally charged and a bit kinky for the borderline BDSM-ish elements, I really did not find it to be so - I found it utterly messed up.
And no, the narrator telling you he actually really liked it does not really make it much better.

Maybe I should have taken a warning from the description, as I generally am not too fond of narratives that focus on the protagonist's guilt, but this certainly went a lot farther down the drain than I would have expected.

Maybe the author ends up salvaging some of it, but I frankly have lost any interest to find out by this point.

I am also rather sick of the whole "you do not understand how I feel!" spiel.
If you belief that, then you as a writer are in the wrong profession.
And if it is taken as a justification to act out instead of trying to be reasonable and maybe TALK things out, I cannot help but find it rather toxic.

Don't glorify abusive behavior - and no, someone feeling angry, however justified, doesn't somehow make that right.

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3 people found this helpful

Plot is a bit "slower", but very funny this time

Reviewed: 08-23-19

After the last books from Vic's perspective throwing quite some big events our way, this time, things are mostly back to normal and we get more focus on our main character and his development.
And even though Vic still is who he is, there is a much needed sense of him at least doing some learning and trying to improve. I do hope that sticks. Vic is a fun main character which makes it easy to like him for his flaws, but I much rather would see him become a bit more competent after all the time we have spend with him.
Now he is learning undercover work and despite his quite amusing missteps, well, at least he is taking his lessons to heart.

So first of all, I like Vic in this one, I do like him working with his partner for the mission and I also enjoy how it gave us a lot of moments which were just heartwarming for how much he misses Jacob and Jacob him.
It is a nice way to have something that keeps the relationship between them fresh without throwing some shoehorned in drama their way.

Lastly, well, there is the politics.
In previous entries, like when Crash was gushing over a photo of Justin Trudeau, I just could not help that feeling that things were getting a lot less subtle and a bit to preachy for my liking.
...something which tends to rub me rather the wrong way when it involves things like lauding politicians. After all, as pretty much any voter knows, there rarely is a politician which does not at least have some dirt or worse on his hands...
So this time, it is rather welcome to have a certain shift, which, honestly, I am a little curious about.
Because this time, we get a very deserved scathing comparison between nice, wacky hippy protesters who do the chanting and forming of human chains and the newer kind who beat up people and set fire to things.
And when Vic gets to play his "douche bag" identity as an opinionated magazine writer, we end up finding out that his fake articles have basically been created using the Postmodernism generator.
It really made me laugh out loud when I got to that part and the fact that this stuff is called out is a very welcome breath of fresh air.
I just feel a bit weary when the authors I read / listen to seem to be so busy preaching the "party line" and would rather have some dissident voices.

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Decent Premise, bad execution.

Reviewed: 08-15-19

I like the combination of m/m, mystery and the supernatural a lot, but none of the parts really delivered.

The mystery just did not build up the suspense well enough to keep me engaged. Other books make you keep reading/listening because you want to know, this one did not quite manage that.

The supernatural was okay but a bit bland. It is one of those werewolf stories with just too little wolf in them.

The romance lastly suffered for me from having the protagonist more or less being fully the „partner at fault“ while Olliver was just a bit too perfect all in all.
Romance needs both characters playing off each other and that just felt lacking.

And I fear I really have grown very tired of the type of protagonist who ends up wallowing in his guilt.
This was particularly off near the ending.
It just comes across as cheap fishing for drama.

Lastly, I think the story ended up too clumsy in its political statements. I think it pays off a lot better to make them more subtle. I just felt like rolling my eyes for being part of the choir being preached to.

The narrator definitely did a good job though.

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5 people found this helpful

Too little time spent on the plot

Reviewed: 05-20-19

The book has many of the typical ingredients of a YA series, protagonist with one parent missing, some strange things starting to happen and a big reveal of the supernatural world.
All of that mixed with teenager issues - and minority issues in this case.

That overall should be a workable mix, but it just does not quite deliver.
The key problem is that there is just not enough of the supernatural happening here.
We get some buildup, but nothing really comes of it.
We see antagonists moving in the background but there is no resolution to that at all.
Yes, this is the first book in the series, but it should have some dramatic resolution and there just is none.

And alas I cannot help getting the impression that the author was more occupied with highlighting social issues than focusing on the arc of suspense.
I do not think this is the way to go about this. I know many good stories which work social issues into the narrative in an organic way and use both to strengthen each other, but here, it feels more like the the plot takes a back seat.
Given that many characters come off as well rounded and sensible and mostly avoid having one character suddenly act out just for the purpose of getting to learn a lesson, I think that is rather a shame.

It feels like the book could have been pretty good otherwise, but I ended up feeling zero excitement for a sequel. I was mostly driven on by wanting to get to finish it.

Given how bleak it can be to find a story as a gay teenager where you can actually feel at home, where you can identify yourself with the characters and not feel alienated, I definitely think there should be more fun and suspense.
I still remember that time pretty well and I do not think this book would really have been what I wanted back then.

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