This was a doozy. I
couldn’t have expected the page after page of mental and sexual abuse I and
the character would have to endure. Though the author does a good job of
keeping the physical part of the abuse off the pages; it did nothing to assuage
my discomfort.
Virtuous lives with her
adoptive family, having been left behind by her mother—and separated from her
twin brother, Valor.
The problem is her adoptive
family is less than ideal; worse even. Her adopted father mentally and
physically abuses her. And that is where the book lost me. I almost
couldn’t stomach any of it, knowing what was going on behind closed doors.
I appreciated the overall
Christian background, but even that could not turn me back on.
The romance was so so, as
you don’t get to see the pair spend a lot of time together. Even when they
snuck off, a lot of the development of their relationship was left out.
The thing it has
going for it is its readability. It’s easy to read and has a good flow.
But I struggled to wrap my
head around it all. I struggled to get through it due to the content. Like I
mentioned it wasn’t vulgar, but it was uncomfortable.
The characters themselves
were okay. I wasn’t fully invested in them, but I wasn’t bored. But what really got me
was the backhanded comments and jokes. I use the term joke lightly. I’ve never
been a fan of stereotyped “black jokes.” You know the kind. The ones where the
black girl is made fun of for being the EBT girl, or the gold-digger. Or lacking edges or whatever other derogatory black girl “jokes.” The male
characters in this book couldn’t get enough of telling them, and I cringed.
It definitely rubbed me the
wrong way. Could I be sensitive? Maybe. But, I’ll never make an apology for
being off-put by it.
But, I won’t dwell. *shrugs shoulders* Anyway, the book was okay. Not too badly written, fairly entertaining despite the explicit content.
This should definitely come with a strong warning if it doesn’t have one. This
will trigger for sure.
It has an overall positive
message, but it’s a lot to get through to see it.
It ends on a
cliff-hanger that leads the story in a positive direction. If these types of
reads are your thing, the climactic ending will give you something to look
forward to. I’m on the fence. Though I'd be interested to see where the author takes the series.
No comments:
Post a Comment