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ninetalevixen 's review for:
The Competition
by Cecily Wolfe
I received a free review copy through BookSirens. This does not affect my rating or opinions of this book.
I was so excited about the writing competition backdrop — kind of like [b:The Testing|13326831|The Testing (The Testing, #1)|Joelle Charbonneau|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363452191s/13326831.jpg|18534001] but slice-of-life realistic fiction — and when each main character was being introduced, I cheered for the diversity in their ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and individual experiences. (I was particularly excited about the Chinese-American and the autism rep, in the beginning; there was also Latina and biracial rep, and each character's family income and traditions were different.)
However, I quickly lost track of the characters: who was friends with whom, who had a crush on whom, which tragic backstory belonged to which person. It didn't help that the narration frequently switched POV, used a lot of pronouns instead of names, and omitted dialogue tags in group scenes; I didn't have enough of a sense of each individual to guess who said/did what. Omniscient third-person might have been a more effective choice, especially since the characters do a lot of "mind-reading" to convey what other characters are thinking (e.g., "She gestured to the stage as if to ask why the video hadn't played properly").
There were also some concerning phrasings and presentations of the diversity that almost made me wish it hadn't been included: multiple mentions of the girls' specific skin tones (including one scene where another character compares them to each other, and another where one is described as "a perfect blend of her parents' ethnicities" with light skin), Raiden's (and no one else's) repeated references to family expectations and traditions and even folklore, Cam's patronizing if well-intended close supervision and intercession when Julia — who doesn't get her own POV, and Cam "doesn't dare" bring up the word "autism" so we don't know for sure whether Julia is autistic or just really socially inept — interacts with others.
The characters and their relationships didn't feel fully developed, and neither did the plot. The big "twist" came in pretty late and was resolved pretty quickly; the heterosexual pairings were made clear very early on and seemed to skip progression in favor of drama. There were also a lot of coincidences and repetition between different characters' experiences and decisions, which I found hard to believe. One or two, maybe, a few nice parallels, but the sheer volume made it unlikely. And ironically, the "writing samples" and scenes where the characters were writing were my least favorite parts, because they were full of cheesy cliches and empty metaphors.
So in summary, this book had a terrific premise, and I wanted very much to love this diverse group of unlikely friends, but it was underdeveloped and slightly problematic.
I was so excited about the writing competition backdrop — kind of like [b:The Testing|13326831|The Testing (The Testing, #1)|Joelle Charbonneau|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1363452191s/13326831.jpg|18534001] but slice-of-life realistic fiction — and when each main character was being introduced, I cheered for the diversity in their ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and individual experiences. (I was particularly excited about the Chinese-American and the autism rep, in the beginning; there was also Latina and biracial rep, and each character's family income and traditions were different.)
However, I quickly lost track of the characters: who was friends with whom, who had a crush on whom, which tragic backstory belonged to which person. It didn't help that the narration frequently switched POV, used a lot of pronouns instead of names, and omitted dialogue tags in group scenes; I didn't have enough of a sense of each individual to guess who said/did what. Omniscient third-person might have been a more effective choice, especially since the characters do a lot of "mind-reading" to convey what other characters are thinking (e.g., "She gestured to the stage as if to ask why the video hadn't played properly").
There were also some concerning phrasings and presentations of the diversity that almost made me wish it hadn't been included: multiple mentions of the girls' specific skin tones (including one scene where another character compares them to each other, and another where one is described as "a perfect blend of her parents' ethnicities" with light skin), Raiden's (and no one else's) repeated references to family expectations and traditions and even folklore, Cam's patronizing if well-intended close supervision and intercession when Julia — who doesn't get her own POV, and Cam "doesn't dare" bring up the word "autism" so we don't know for sure whether Julia is autistic or just really socially inept — interacts with others.
The characters and their relationships didn't feel fully developed, and neither did the plot. The big "twist" came in pretty late and was resolved pretty quickly; the heterosexual pairings were made clear very early on and seemed to skip progression in favor of drama. There were also a lot of coincidences and repetition between different characters' experiences and decisions, which I found hard to believe. One or two, maybe, a few nice parallels, but the sheer volume made it unlikely. And ironically, the "writing samples" and scenes where the characters were writing were my least favorite parts, because they were full of cheesy cliches and empty metaphors.
So in summary, this book had a terrific premise, and I wanted very much to love this diverse group of unlikely friends, but it was underdeveloped and slightly problematic.