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nerdinthelibrary 's review for:
The Love Interest
by Cale Dietrich
*3.5
content warnings: medical procedures, murder, gore, mentions of suicide
representation: main m/m relationship, gay main character, black side character
The reviews on this book are mixed, to say the least, and I completely understand why.
Quite frankly, the start of this book is absolute garbage. It's as if the six chapters weren't even seen by an editor and were the first draft, that's how bad they were. I'm pretty sure that's because the start is full of really clunky exposition and uninteresting backstory, which meant that the book picked up pretty quickly. The writing didn't improve dramatically or anything, but it was still perfectly fine.
The plot was also perfectly fine. It was incredibly melodramatic, but it worked for this book, which is literally just a satire of YA tropes and cliches, and the characters even acknowledge that they're being melodramatic.
There was an epilogue, and while it was adorable it was also so unnecessary. It's a classic "one year later" epilogue, but so much has apparently happened in that one year that now I want a whole frigging novella set in that year (seriously, most of the main relationships stuff has apparently happened in that year)
They were really surface-level, but I still enjoyed the characters. They had little depth to them but they were all likable and served the plot so I can't complaint too much. Though, I don't really understand what the point of making Caden's fake parents so prominent in the start was because they practically disappear for the second half of the book, and there parts were never that interesting in the first place.
I really enjoyed the romance. It was cute and dramatic, which was exactly what I wanted from this book. Though, I think this book could have really benefited from being dual-perspective so we could have been inside Dylan's head. Partially because Caden could be a pretty bland protagonist at times, but mostly because we don't understand why he does half of the stuff he does and it would have added a lot more depth to his character if we had been inside his head.
Even if (as far as we know) none of the characters actually identify as it, I really appreciated the mentions of bisexuality in this book. In particular, there's a part where two characters are discussing the sexuality of another character (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers), one character says "he told me he isn't gay and that he likes girls", and the other character immediately replies with "he might be bi. he could totally like girls and you, so don't dismiss that as a possibility." YES, THANK YOU!! That's literally what I think Every! Single! Time! two characters who are talking about sexuality just completely forget that there's anything other than gay or straight. Thank you, Cale Dietrich, thank you.
On the whole, this book was pretty good, and I'm not kidding about wanting that novella of the one year. I want the fluffiest, angstiest start of a relationship in human history, and worse comes to worse I'll just write it myself.
content warnings: medical procedures, murder, gore, mentions of suicide
representation: main m/m relationship, gay main character, black side character
The reviews on this book are mixed, to say the least, and I completely understand why.
Quite frankly, the start of this book is absolute garbage. It's as if the six chapters weren't even seen by an editor and were the first draft, that's how bad they were. I'm pretty sure that's because the start is full of really clunky exposition and uninteresting backstory, which meant that the book picked up pretty quickly. The writing didn't improve dramatically or anything, but it was still perfectly fine.
The plot was also perfectly fine. It was incredibly melodramatic, but it worked for this book, which is literally just a satire of YA tropes and cliches, and the characters even acknowledge that they're being melodramatic.
There was an epilogue, and while it was adorable it was also so unnecessary. It's a classic "one year later" epilogue, but so much has apparently happened in that one year that now I want a whole frigging novella set in that year (seriously, most of the main relationships stuff has apparently happened in that year)
They were really surface-level, but I still enjoyed the characters. They had little depth to them but they were all likable and served the plot so I can't complaint too much. Though, I don't really understand what the point of making Caden's fake parents so prominent in the start was because they practically disappear for the second half of the book, and there parts were never that interesting in the first place.
I really enjoyed the romance. It was cute and dramatic, which was exactly what I wanted from this book. Though, I think this book could have really benefited from being dual-perspective so we could have been inside Dylan's head. Partially because Caden could be a pretty bland protagonist at times, but mostly because we don't understand why he does half of the stuff he does and it would have added a lot more depth to his character if we had been inside his head.
Even if (as far as we know) none of the characters actually identify as it, I really appreciated the mentions of bisexuality in this book. In particular, there's a part where two characters are discussing the sexuality of another character (trying to be vague to avoid spoilers), one character says "he told me he isn't gay and that he likes girls", and the other character immediately replies with "he might be bi. he could totally like girls and you, so don't dismiss that as a possibility." YES, THANK YOU!! That's literally what I think Every! Single! Time! two characters who are talking about sexuality just completely forget that there's anything other than gay or straight. Thank you, Cale Dietrich, thank you.
On the whole, this book was pretty good, and I'm not kidding about wanting that novella of the one year. I want the fluffiest, angstiest start of a relationship in human history, and worse comes to worse I'll just write it myself.