JR Maxwell > Recent Status Updates

Ah, that special feeling when a male writer thinks he's being feminist by writing abusive male characters, when really he's just making all the female characters look like idiots for putting up with it. Sigh.

The problem with becoming involved in a series with characters you love is that you become INVOLVED with characters you LOVE.

I'm not a parent, so the 'shocking family loss' spoken of in the blurb actually to me is 100% an reprehensible betrayal of my two fave lads, so it literally made me burst into tears while driving to the grocery store at 7 this morning.

Putting this in a drawer for a while.

Okay yikes. I'm guessing I'm not supposed to loathe the lady lead from page one, so I'm putting this one in a drawer for now.

The author introduces seven white male upper class characters in the first five minutes of chapter one. I guess from the reviews that this doesn't flummox anyone else? But I literally listened to it three times, and was still so confused I had to actually open a document and write everyone's name and scant descriptions down. That's...not great storytelling, tbh.

Okay listen, the book cover on Kindle is a gorgeous LADY, and vastly superior to this one. Harrumph.

I texted one of the authors this morning to tell her I had stayed up waaay too late reading her book. It was delightful to be able to compliment a good friend in that way. I'm trying not to read the whole thing in three days buuuuut I can't promise anything.

TRIGGER WARNING for diet, 'health', weight, excercise.

I'm on chapter 32 out of 39, and the secondary characters just made me so fucking ill I don't think I can finish it. It's definitely going into time out for a while.

Uh, I might have to take a break from this book. Or there's a large chance I'll end up throwing my phone against the wall at the lead character's outrageous selfishness. I get that he's in high school, but even in high school acting shitty has consequences.

Uh why is every villain a queer person and vice versa? Was that considered cutting edge for 2005?

I have to wonder what perceived slights the FBI gave this author, because wow does she hate them a lot.

This is already far better than the first Leverage novel - There's still exposition for people unfamiliar with the characters, but it's through rotating third person narration, not big blocks of omniscient text.

Oh and now sexual assault. Cool. I'm done with this book. Do not read it.

Well at least it's a change-up from book 1. This time the female characters barely exist, and the men are all either idiots or scumbags. Characters that are this oblivious are unsympathetic, and then the anticipation of knowing exactly what shitty thing is going to happen is dragged out excruciatingly.

Promising start with an actual 3 dimensional lady lead... Then descended into slapstick 'Look at all this zany stuff happening around her while she cries! Ha! Ha!' like the first book. So sad.

Oh good and now kink-shaming for comedic effect.

I keep listening, thinking this book is going to redeem itself.

...

But hey, at least all the dudes are either spineless or douchebags. Or, in the case of the leading man, both!

Every female character in this book is either an uncaring conniving bitch or an agent-less bubblehead. It's so distressing to me. Women are awesome and prismatic. Don't write them like this please.

Oh, and a protracted scene of degrading an older woman's body? What the actual heck. We are all going to be old women, fate willing, so have some respect for yourself.

I love this trope... Except when it's treated like this. The main character has zero agency. Literally zero. It's sad.

I cannot believe in only halfway done. 😣

And now I've gotten far enough to sense the inevitable approaching heartbreak. >.<

(estimated via audiobook timestamps)