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brittbat 's review for:
The Holiday Trap
by Roan Parrish
The Holiday is my favorite Christmas movie*--and I will physically fight anyone who disputes its status as a Christmas movie, thankyouverymuch--so I fell all over myself in a mad scramble to put The Holiday Trap on hold. For the first third, I thought that it might supplant the likes of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo or A Lady for a Duke for the coveted title of my favorite book of the year. (This translates roughly to "book I read in the fastest frenzy and spent the most time telling my girlfriend about.")
There is so much here that I love, particularly Truman and every single thing about his story, but also the descriptions of New Orleans that made me want to visit again, the intergenerational friendships, and the tone of the writing that just felt really good to read.
For most of the book. Toward the end, especially in regards to Greta and Carys, the characters spend so much time lecturing each other about how to live, and I found it very annoying. Do actual queer twentysomethings do this? Yes, but it annoys me when real people do it, too, and makes me think that in general we need to step back from the therapy speak and pathologizing-every-human-behavior that characterizes our very-online interactions with each other. Which is just another way of saying that not everyone is a covert narcissist, Carys, and you should probably tell your girlfriend that cleaning while bitching about being hungover is something you're invested in when you tell her not to clean, not after when you're mad that she did something nice for you, because no one is going to think you enjoy cleaning while bitching about being hungover. Because who does?? Seriously, I headcanon Carys's housemates waking up and being like, "Wow, I feel kinda guilty that Greta cleaned everything herself, but damn, I'm glad we don't have to do it!" while Carys fumes.
Anyway. I still loved this book. It's queer, it's swoony, it's festive, it's fun. Give it a read.
*I posted this and then remembered that Carol is also my favorite Christmas movie, so consider it a tie. And yes, I'll fight you about Carol, too.
There is so much here that I love, particularly Truman and every single thing about his story, but also the descriptions of New Orleans that made me want to visit again, the intergenerational friendships, and the tone of the writing that just felt really good to read.
For most of the book. Toward the end, especially in regards to Greta and Carys, the characters spend so much time lecturing each other about how to live, and I found it very annoying. Do actual queer twentysomethings do this? Yes, but it annoys me when real people do it, too, and makes me think that in general we need to step back from the therapy speak and pathologizing-every-human-behavior that characterizes our very-online interactions with each other. Which is just another way of saying that not everyone is a covert narcissist, Carys, and you should probably tell your girlfriend that cleaning while bitching about being hungover is something you're invested in when you tell her not to clean, not after when you're mad that she did something nice for you, because no one is going to think you enjoy cleaning while bitching about being hungover. Because who does?? Seriously, I headcanon Carys's housemates waking up and being like, "Wow, I feel kinda guilty that Greta cleaned everything herself, but damn, I'm glad we don't have to do it!" while Carys fumes.
Anyway. I still loved this book. It's queer, it's swoony, it's festive, it's fun. Give it a read.
*I posted this and then remembered that Carol is also my favorite Christmas movie, so consider it a tie. And yes, I'll fight you about Carol, too.