2/5 stars
I read this book because I wanted to know what this "New Adult" genre was all about. It seems to mainly be romances with horrible covers (this one included) and glowing reviews. Everyone was raving about this book and while scrolling through reviews, I was struggling to find the bad ones. Because I'm a horribly cynical person, I tend to immediately become skeptical of books with only good reviews. This way, I don't build up my expectations and have them crushed. Most often, it turns out better than expected.This book turned out worse.
I will first say that I did not hate this book, hence the two stars. There is one single aspect that earned the one star. I will start with that.
The good:
For me, the good in this book was the inclusion of deaf characters. Particularly the character of Ridge. I have never read a book, especially a young adult novel (because let's face it, New Adult is just YA in disguise) where the main protagonist had a physical disability or impairment. I thought Hoover handled the situation really well and tastefully. She focused on his deafness, but not to the point where it was the main focus of the book. Because that's how people with impairments live. It affects their lives and it's important, but I feel like someone who has been deaf their whole life doesn't go around crying all the time because they're deaf. They just live with it. And that's what Ridge does.
That is where I stop liking Ridge and the book.
The bad:
For the bad, I have to make a list to organize my thoughts, so you are getting this in that format.
1. So much telling.
Colleen Hoover obviously has promise as a writer. The writing was not bad. I've heard from other reviewers that her writing has improved immensely since her first novels. However, I still feel like she has a long way to go. The writing in this did not captivate me like I want it to. It left me feeling flat. As I finished the book, I realized it was because she did a whole lot of telling and not enough showing. Considering the fact that one of her main characters is deaf, I feel like we should get a lot of descriptions. Because sight is all he has.
I honestly don't know what any of the characters look like. I know that Sydney is hot and has blonde hair. I know that Ridge is hot and has blonde hair. We do not have a single description of Warren or Bridgett (besides the fact that she is apparently slutty looking) and we get absolutely no descriptions of what their apartment looks like. For example, when Sydney walks into her new room for the first time, I would expect her to describe what it looks like...nope. Nothing.
The entire book it was just like "Sydney did this and it was hot, Warren did this, Ridge did this, I did this." I just really hate it when a book doesn't paint me a picture. Because that's what novels should do.
2. Sexism?
I am a feminist. Okay. I try not to be a crazy feminist. I try not to constantly be calling out sexism in the most minute places, because I know a lot of times people don't mean it as sexist. It's just small societal influences on people's speech. But there is a certain point when reading a book where I get really mad about it. It happens when the sexism is very slight and sneaky, but really terrible at the same time. I hate that situation because it is so sneaky, it sugar coats things. My main problem in this book is that Ridge is apparently incapable of controlling himself because Sydney is so beautiful. He even asks her to move out because he can't control himself.
Personally, I am not a big believer in the whole "sorry, the heart wants what the heart wants", because if Ridge really tried, he would not have kissed Sydney.
Then the character Warren is constantly sexually harassing Sydney because that's the way he is apparently. She just smiles and laughs it off because that's how he is. He's a crude guy who makes jokes, talks about sex, plays pranks, and watches a lot of porn. So apparently it's okay for him to say something like "Do you just need someone to f*** you?...Because if that's all it is, I'll bend you over the couch right now and f*** you so hard you'll never think about Ridge again."
I'm sorry....WHEN IS THAT EVER OKAY TO SAY?
3. The Maggie situation
At the beginning of this book, Sydney finds out that her boyfriend has been cheating on her with her best friend, Tori. From that point on, she vows to never be "a Tori." And yet...[literally like 3 weeks later, she does the exact same thing. She kisses Ridge. While I still think that Ridge was more to blame because he had already been emotionally cheating on Maggie before Sydney moved in, Syd still had a choice in kissing Ridge. She could have thought to herself "hey...this guy has a girlfriend and we are getting really close. Maybe I should do something to break it off." But NO. She defends it in the name of "writing music." Because apparently, writing music is some sensual thing. They cannot write music together without wanting to make out. RED FLAG. And after they kiss, she at first thinks "I'm Tori." But then, she says that it's different because she and Ridge are in lurrvveeee or some crap like that. No. Cheating is never okay. I don't give a crap if you're in love, it's not okay. And this book basically says that when you are cheating without feelings, it's horrible and terrible. But if you're in lurrrvveeee with that person, it's really not that bad. (hide spoiler)]
So yeah. Those were my problems. I kind of felt like most of this book was just one big hot mess.
And as far as my judgements on what the New Adult genre is all about...so far it just kind of feels like a marketing ploy by industry analysts who noticed that there are a lot of adults who read YA. So, they created this new genre which people who are not teenagers can buy without feeling as guilty. (Even though there's nothing wrong with being an adult who reads YA.)
