Femme
2016 • 228 pages
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
Queeny cocktail waiter, Lionel, wakes up to find himself in bed with Dog, a straight-acting softball player and the two embark on a rocky road to romance. A journey that requires coming out of the closet, going into the closet, a pair of red high heels, many pairs of red high heels, a failed intervention, a couple of aborted dates, and homemade pom-poms. Mostly, Lionel and Dog learn what it means to be a man.
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I tend to avoid first person books where the POV switches between the main characters; the reason why I didn't close this book as soon as I realised it is one of those books is because it has a really catchy opening, but also because the chapter titles aren't the names of whichever POV they were featuring. I'm still lowering the rating because of that. While I did like the writing style quite a lot and both of the main characters, the first person switching POV is a pet peeve of mine. I could go more into why I don't like it, but pet peeve works just fine.
And there are a few other reasons why I couldn't give Femme the full stars rating anyway. For one, I would have like more background on Lionel. I wanted to know what happened. I got just some snippets here and there and I feel like a lot was left out. I felt like his background was shown enough for something to be there and also played it quite safe, not really giving details. While it is nice that it leaves room for the reader to fill in the blanks, there are too many blanks. Then there's Doug who I liked, but I think he got away with his screw ups way too easy.
I also would have liked more on the side characters too. Some more background on Carlos. And I didn't really like the team's attitude, I would have expected more from them for some reason. I kind of get it, but at the same time I don't.
But I started with the things I didn't like and there are actually things I did like too. I liked how Lionel and Doug differed. There was some sort of contrast between them. And I liked the dialogue in the book, with everyone. The writing style was nice, I liked how the characters' personalities came through. And it was a funny as well. Not laugh out loud funny, but witty funny.
The most I liked the theme of the book and the way it was dealt with. I'm not going to elaborate on that.
I'd describe Femme as an easy read. It rolled out nice and smooth, it didn't drag at all and it pulled me in. I thought I might drop it simply because of my pet peeve, but I actually enjoyed reading it.
