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A review by punkboibluez
Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
2.0
I wanted to like this so badly. I love a shy panicked guy, and I LOVE an ethnic flamboyant guy. BUT putting this from Paris' point of view was a mistake. I can only read an anxious spiral with no help in sight so many times before I start being in an anxious spiral. It bothered me that nobody from the beginning was like, Paris, honey, you need some meds. I would've much preferred the book if he would've been working through his anxiety from the beginning, and he spiraled after getting kicked out in the semifinal. It would've been a much better book.
I want representation, especially as a queer with an anxiety disorder, but you don't just get magically better with a handful of group therapy sessions in the last 50 pages. That's not how therapy works. It would've been much better if we could've read the progress all the way through the book. Plus it would've been A LOT less annoying. I read books to escape from my shitty panicked existence, reading this for so long just brought it all back to me the whole time. It was frustrating.
Also, usually I love the background characters, but they fell flat in this book. I feel like the roommate got really upset when Paris told her she only sticks around for the money, and while I get why she would be mad, it DID come across that way. There wasn't enough interaction between them that gave me something more about their relationship. Also the person who won, we never got any interaction with. I was hoping for this person to get more page time, and they just didn't, which is sad. They were great, but we got a ton of the old racist woman and the same six tweets over and over. This is hard, because I REALLY wanted to like this.
I will still read anything Alexis writes, but this was a fail. I really enjoy this author the rest of the time. Which is sad, because these characters could've been amazing! I feel like better editing and thinking more about what actually helps someone who is anxious instead of just wanting to write someone who is anxious for the (ENTIRE) book would've made this book much better.
I want representation, especially as a queer with an anxiety disorder, but you don't just get magically better with a handful of group therapy sessions in the last 50 pages. That's not how therapy works. It would've been much better if we could've read the progress all the way through the book. Plus it would've been A LOT less annoying. I read books to escape from my shitty panicked existence, reading this for so long just brought it all back to me the whole time. It was frustrating.
Also, usually I love the background characters, but they fell flat in this book. I feel like the roommate got really upset when Paris told her she only sticks around for the money, and while I get why she would be mad, it DID come across that way. There wasn't enough interaction between them that gave me something more about their relationship. Also the person who won, we never got any interaction with. I was hoping for this person to get more page time, and they just didn't, which is sad. They were great, but we got a ton of the old racist woman and the same six tweets over and over. This is hard, because I REALLY wanted to like this.
I will still read anything Alexis writes, but this was a fail. I really enjoy this author the rest of the time. Which is sad, because these characters could've been amazing! I feel like better editing and thinking more about what actually helps someone who is anxious instead of just wanting to write someone who is anxious for the (ENTIRE) book would've made this book much better.