Scan barcode
A review by ssuprnova
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
5.0
A reread two months later: this book gets my whole ass heart and the evidence is in that i opened it just to refresh the luc and oliver scenes for emotional comfort and yet i read it whole again because every character is a fucking delight and i couldnt put it down. My compliments to the chef
___
ok WOW. WOW. i genuinely did not expect to like that one as much as i did!!!
i dont even know where to start. but. the writing? DELICIOUS. absolutely EXQUISITE. a complete pleasure. it somehow manages to entertwine together the poshest of british vibes and words you havent heard in your life, with borderline teenage slang, and it works. the tone of the whole thing is super lighthearted but the content is HEAVY and INTENSE and it hits exactly where it needs to hit.
and you know where that is? deep. because this is a love story, but not only that. its also a self love story, and a story about getting back up, about what you allow to hurt you and what you dont. about all the people that keep pulling you up even when you don't want them to, and ask for nothing in return. about choosing wholeheartedly every step of the way. but it does it in a way that you can't even tell it's doing it-it just feels like a nice, funny story, and then suddenly you're sobbing under your blanket because shit just hits close to home. (for me, anyway, and i think for most people to be entirely honest).
this book feels like... i was going to say like a hug, but thats not quite right. it feels like when you're crying your eyes out because your partner just dumped you and your friends sit there with you in silence and let you say the same shit over and over and hand you tissues and force you to take hydration breaks. that's really more like it. luc as a narrator is incredibly vulnerable in a way he doesn't manage to be with oliver, and it makes you feel like youre IN the whole thing. and every character- and i mean every single one of them, is delightful. from all of luc's beautiful friends, to his coworkers and boss, his mom, her best friend- and obviously, oliver, and luc himself. every one of them is three dimensional and well defined and feels most definitely alive and i just want to jump head first into this book and exist in it because even when things are messy and ugly, they're messy and ugly in a way makes you want to be present.
and boy messy and ugly does it get- all of a sudden and very intensely and i kid you not, i got a stomachache from pure stress. because i could not bear the thought of anything bad happening to these two. (and although the twist from good things to bad things was kind of abrupt, i mean, thats what made it all the worse, so its forgiven on my end).
its all just. so tender. you're rooting for them from the second they meet because they are two absolute messes, disaster humans, and. you know that one lyric from the pink! song glitter in the air, that goes "have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry"? thats. thats the book. thats the entire thing, both luc and oliver among themselves and me with the book.
i have so much love for the story and these characters and i finished it not even 24 hours ago and i already miss them. when does husband material come out again?
___
ok WOW. WOW. i genuinely did not expect to like that one as much as i did!!!
i dont even know where to start. but. the writing? DELICIOUS. absolutely EXQUISITE. a complete pleasure. it somehow manages to entertwine together the poshest of british vibes and words you havent heard in your life, with borderline teenage slang, and it works. the tone of the whole thing is super lighthearted but the content is HEAVY and INTENSE and it hits exactly where it needs to hit.
and you know where that is? deep. because this is a love story, but not only that. its also a self love story, and a story about getting back up, about what you allow to hurt you and what you dont. about all the people that keep pulling you up even when you don't want them to, and ask for nothing in return. about choosing wholeheartedly every step of the way. but it does it in a way that you can't even tell it's doing it-it just feels like a nice, funny story, and then suddenly you're sobbing under your blanket because shit just hits close to home. (for me, anyway, and i think for most people to be entirely honest).
this book feels like... i was going to say like a hug, but thats not quite right. it feels like when you're crying your eyes out because your partner just dumped you and your friends sit there with you in silence and let you say the same shit over and over and hand you tissues and force you to take hydration breaks. that's really more like it. luc as a narrator is incredibly vulnerable in a way he doesn't manage to be with oliver, and it makes you feel like youre IN the whole thing. and every character- and i mean every single one of them, is delightful. from all of luc's beautiful friends, to his coworkers and boss, his mom, her best friend- and obviously, oliver, and luc himself. every one of them is three dimensional and well defined and feels most definitely alive and i just want to jump head first into this book and exist in it because even when things are messy and ugly, they're messy and ugly in a way makes you want to be present.
and boy messy and ugly does it get- all of a sudden and very intensely and i kid you not, i got a stomachache from pure stress. because i could not bear the thought of anything bad happening to these two. (and although the twist from good things to bad things was kind of abrupt, i mean, thats what made it all the worse, so its forgiven on my end).
its all just. so tender. you're rooting for them from the second they meet because they are two absolute messes, disaster humans, and. you know that one lyric from the pink! song glitter in the air, that goes "have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry"? thats. thats the book. thats the entire thing, both luc and oliver among themselves and me with the book.
i have so much love for the story and these characters and i finished it not even 24 hours ago and i already miss them. when does husband material come out again?