Ricky
This is pretty bad but I also found it readable. Formulaic and tropey but somehow engaging. This is definitely one of those MM romance novels that reads like it's more about straight people than actual gay people. somehow I always feel like I understand straight people more one reading these books that superimpose heterosexual culture onto queer situations.
Here it makes sense that Cannon might think like a straight guy because despite ultimately identifying is bisexual, he has lived as a straight man. Meanwhile, Easton, the gay one, is written like a woman with a personality disorder. someone could make the argument that he's just a demon twink, but to me it feels like you had another of these books written by women where one of the men is the strong silent type who is nearly perfect but is the one who always has to apologize for everything and then the other one acts like a complete and utter psychopath and somehow never takes any accountability for their actions and as always being coddled and taken care of. Like it's kind of weird that this book doesn't really seem understand the interiority of Cannon. He's been through a lot and his only reaction to it is to feel like he needs to take care of Easton. I think as a society we might be aware more often of the fact that straight men don't seem to understand that women are actually just human beings, but all of these tropes about relationships that I see in these romance novels really make me feel that women don't understand that men are actually human beings as well. and I had the thought when I was reading this one that I think it's too bad that what heterosexual people don't seem to understand about queer relationships is the fact that the roles are much more fluid. A lot of these MM romance novels you see people in these really defined roles of which one is the man and which one is the woman, I think in most queer relationships, you seem more of a real partnership. Honestly, whenever I read one of these novels where it's ostensibly a gay story, but ultimately one of the characters is just a woman in the costume of a hot surfer or something, it really just makes me feel so grateful that I wasn't born heterosexual. Heterosexual culture honestly feels so claustrophobic to me. There are all of these distorted beliefs about each other in heterosexual relationships that I think really keep people from truly knowing and understanding each other. Instead of truly being in love with the human being, you have two people who are in love with the mask the other person is forced to wear. And I'm sure this could be true of all relationships, but in my own relationships I guess I have always tried to get past those masks so that we could really know each other.
Anyway, this book is not exactly well written in terms of its prose or many aspects of how it flows or how it is morally reasoned, but I do like the general concept. I very rarely ever think the sex scenes in these books are very good or engaging, and this was also true here. Also I really don't like the audiobook narrator who does the voice of Easton. He always does this whiny voice in everything I've ever heard him read. The guy who did Cannon is okay though.
Ultimately I just get really annoyed of books where people don't communicate for dumb reasons. Like the amount of times Cannon wants to say something but the sociopathic younger brother is running his mouth about something stupid is really annoying. Also, I'm sorry, but if anybody kept trying to call somebody who didn't reply, at a certain point you would send them a text message or an email or a letter. I just don't feel like there would have been no contact for all of that time. I just don't believe that this character would have been so rigid in not being in contact with his family. I also don't believe that he would have been kicked out in this way. What the dad does at the beginning of this movie is absolutely sociopathic. Especially given that it is all over an underage drinking ticket. Like I got that the strong silent type character has to be unrealistically perfect, but having the break from the family being over something so trivial just made the book feel silly to me.
One thing I liked is that of the maybe like three or so books that have dealt with stepbrothers, this is the only one I've ever read that really dealt very seriously with how the people around them might not have a super accepting attitude about two brothers being in a romantic relationship. Which is interesting because I feel like the 7-year separation kind of makes it a little bit less uncomfortable. But one thing that's weird is white is neither of these boys has any friends at all? Like the older one, it kind of makes sense because he's been really involved in college and work, and so maybe he didn't really have time for close friends? I'm not really sure I believe it, but that would be an explanation. and then maybe Easton doesn't have any friends because he's a total psychopath? It seems like the old people in the town like Easton though so maybe it's just because like he says about the reason he doesn't date anybody is because there's no gay people around there because it's a small town by the beach or something. Which of course then makes you wonder how much business this beach store can actually do, but maybe it's for vacation people.
I just feel like if I were going away to college, before I dropped my plan to become a doctor, I would probably accept my dad's call and tell him, hey bitch, I need money for medical school.
This is pretty bad but I also found it readable. Formulaic and tropey but somehow engaging. This is definitely one of those MM romance novels that reads like it's more about straight people than actual gay people. somehow I always feel like I understand straight people more one reading these books that superimpose heterosexual culture onto queer situations.
Here it makes sense that Cannon might think like a straight guy because despite ultimately identifying is bisexual, he has lived as a straight man. Meanwhile, Easton, the gay one, is written like a woman with a personality disorder. someone could make the argument that he's just a demon twink, but to me it feels like you had another of these books written by women where one of the men is the strong silent type who is nearly perfect but is the one who always has to apologize for everything and then the other one acts like a complete and utter psychopath and somehow never takes any accountability for their actions and as always being coddled and taken care of. Like it's kind of weird that this book doesn't really seem understand the interiority of Cannon. He's been through a lot and his only reaction to it is to feel like he needs to take care of Easton. I think as a society we might be aware more often of the fact that straight men don't seem to understand that women are actually just human beings, but all of these tropes about relationships that I see in these romance novels really make me feel that women don't understand that men are actually human beings as well. and I had the thought when I was reading this one that I think it's too bad that what heterosexual people don't seem to understand about queer relationships is the fact that the roles are much more fluid. A lot of these MM romance novels you see people in these really defined roles of which one is the man and which one is the woman, I think in most queer relationships, you seem more of a real partnership. Honestly, whenever I read one of these novels where it's ostensibly a gay story, but ultimately one of the characters is just a woman in the costume of a hot surfer or something, it really just makes me feel so grateful that I wasn't born heterosexual. Heterosexual culture honestly feels so claustrophobic to me. There are all of these distorted beliefs about each other in heterosexual relationships that I think really keep people from truly knowing and understanding each other. Instead of truly being in love with the human being, you have two people who are in love with the mask the other person is forced to wear. And I'm sure this could be true of all relationships, but in my own relationships I guess I have always tried to get past those masks so that we could really know each other.
Anyway, this book is not exactly well written in terms of its prose or many aspects of how it flows or how it is morally reasoned, but I do like the general concept. I very rarely ever think the sex scenes in these books are very good or engaging, and this was also true here. Also I really don't like the audiobook narrator who does the voice of Easton. He always does this whiny voice in everything I've ever heard him read. The guy who did Cannon is okay though.
Ultimately I just get really annoyed of books where people don't communicate for dumb reasons. Like the amount of times Cannon wants to say something but the sociopathic younger brother is running his mouth about something stupid is really annoying. Also, I'm sorry, but if anybody kept trying to call somebody who didn't reply, at a certain point you would send them a text message or an email or a letter. I just don't feel like there would have been no contact for all of that time. I just don't believe that this character would have been so rigid in not being in contact with his family. I also don't believe that he would have been kicked out in this way. What the dad does at the beginning of this movie is absolutely sociopathic. Especially given that it is all over an underage drinking ticket. Like I got that the strong silent type character has to be unrealistically perfect, but having the break from the family being over something so trivial just made the book feel silly to me.
One thing I liked is that of the maybe like three or so books that have dealt with stepbrothers, this is the only one I've ever read that really dealt very seriously with how the people around them might not have a super accepting attitude about two brothers being in a romantic relationship. Which is interesting because I feel like the 7-year separation kind of makes it a little bit less uncomfortable. But one thing that's weird is white is neither of these boys has any friends at all? Like the older one, it kind of makes sense because he's been really involved in college and work, and so maybe he didn't really have time for close friends? I'm not really sure I believe it, but that would be an explanation. and then maybe Easton doesn't have any friends because he's a total psychopath? It seems like the old people in the town like Easton though so maybe it's just because like he says about the reason he doesn't date anybody is because there's no gay people around there because it's a small town by the beach or something. Which of course then makes you wonder how much business this beach store can actually do, but maybe it's for vacation people.
I just feel like if I were going away to college, before I dropped my plan to become a doctor, I would probably accept my dad's call and tell him, hey bitch, I need money for medical school.