Scan barcode
A review by mx_manda
The Alien's Little Sister by Amanda Milo
3.0
Of all the things Amanda Milo can be accused of, generic and boring are not among them. Even if I dislike something she wrote, it's still interesting and pretty unique.
I'm conflicted about how I feel on this story, because I'm not sure she wrote it intending for us to actually like the narrator, Matt. If I were to conjecture further, I suspect she wrote this to contrast how overbearing and awful "alpha" traits in alien main characters are when you assign them to human men. In human men, it's some pretty toxic masculinity.
At least...that's why I would have written this story in this way.
And the only way Matt was going to find a woman who would put up with that, was if he found a really diminished mouse of a human woman—or an alien one who is already used to male posturing.
NGL, my favorite part of this book is when And all he can think is, "yeah, I totally earned this."
Yes. Yes you did, by being a dick and acting like your gate-keeping womens' sexuality is somehow a worthwhile pursuit and respectful of them. Because nothing says "I will make others respect you and your boundaries," like trampling all over her boundaries and telling her she's wrong to be angry with you.
And how overbearing Matt is with Christian, a teenage boy with very healthy masculinity who Matt derisively describes as "submissive," and bullies him the entire book, well....
Anywho. The only way this jerk was going to have a HEA was with an alien. And now he's in a situation where every one of Inara's male relations can break him like a twig.
So this one was a bit better than okay. I would have liked it more had the female characters all pushed back on Matt more and forced some growth out of him instead of acquiescing all of the time or being happy if he was merely quiet. I would have liked to see him actually listen. Which he never actually did and that was disappointing.
There are a lot of female characters in this story, which I LOVED, and they were all supportive with no Jealous Bitches™ to be found. HALLELUJAH!
I laughed quite a bit during this—it is an Amanda Milo story, afterall—and I learned a surprising amount about cars and maintenance, which I then had a discussion with my own handy spouse about. He was pretty amused to talk about changing rear differential fluid with me, including checking to make sure Ms. Milo remembered a few important steps, which were in there in one form or another.
I'm conflicted about how I feel on this story, because I'm not sure she wrote it intending for us to actually like the narrator, Matt. If I were to conjecture further, I suspect she wrote this to contrast how overbearing and awful "alpha" traits in alien main characters are when you assign them to human men. In human men, it's some pretty toxic masculinity.
At least...that's why I would have written this story in this way.
And the only way Matt was going to find a woman who would put up with that, was if he found a really diminished mouse of a human woman—or an alien one who is already used to male posturing.
NGL, my favorite part of this book is when
Spoiler
all 7 of Inara's brothers come and give Matt a taste of his own medicine.Yes. Yes you did, by being a dick and acting like your gate-keeping womens' sexuality is somehow a worthwhile pursuit and respectful of them. Because nothing says "I will make others respect you and your boundaries," like trampling all over her boundaries and telling her she's wrong to be angry with you.
And how overbearing Matt is with Christian, a teenage boy with very healthy masculinity who Matt derisively describes as "submissive," and bullies him the entire book, well....
Anywho. The only way this jerk was going to have a HEA was with an alien. And now he's in a situation where every one of Inara's male relations can break him like a twig.
So this one was a bit better than okay. I would have liked it more had the female characters all pushed back on Matt more and forced some growth out of him instead of acquiescing all of the time or being happy if he was merely quiet. I would have liked to see him actually listen. Which he never actually did and that was disappointing.
There are a lot of female characters in this story, which I LOVED, and they were all supportive with no Jealous Bitches™ to be found. HALLELUJAH!
I laughed quite a bit during this—it is an Amanda Milo story, afterall—and I learned a surprising amount about cars and maintenance, which I then had a discussion with my own handy spouse about. He was pretty amused to talk about changing rear differential fluid with me, including checking to make sure Ms. Milo remembered a few important steps, which were in there in one form or another.