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Boyfriend Material, by Alexis Hall
Jan. 17th, 2021 03:23 pmA romance novel that I've seen getting a lot of hype! I enjoyed it a lot, it was extremely readable and charming, but also I have some issues with it.
There were aspects of it I thought were super great. It's one of the best iterations of the fake relationship trope I think I've ever seen, where it is so clear how having a fake relationship, given the people Luc and Oliver are, is exactly what they needed to be able to develop a healthy strong relationship with each other, instead of the pretending just being a narrative excuse for pining and not talking about it. It was delicious watching them deliberately and carefully work on their shit despite the various setbacks, to develop into a strong and supportive relationship between people who care about each other very much for exactly who they are.
I also love Luc's mom's relationship with her best friend Judy. It's a relationship that's clearly demonstrated to be their primary, most important relationship, and very committed, and also not romantic/sexual. That kind of relationship doesn't get visibility very often, and I was charmed by it.
My biggest problem is that I wish the book had done more to demonstrate what Luc's good qualities are from the beginning. He's cruel, he pushes people away, he's a general all-round asshole, and does not show many redeeming traits to the reader. And although this behaviour is understandable given his history, and although the book is very readable and appealing in the moment, and although Luc gets better, it makes it hard to understand why anyone (friend or fake dating partner) might have stuck with him for so long. And he stays in this mode for such a large percentage of the book! It's very possible (probable) that he does have good traits even when he's at his most disastrous that the people around him can see but aren't visible to the reader, given that his POV is so self-hating, but...as a reader I think it's important to have more of a sense of those good traits in the moment.
I think that if this book had done the more usual romance novel thing of alternating viewpoints between the two leads, that might have helped - because then the reader could see Luc from the outside through the eyes of someone who likes him better than he likes himself. I can understand why the author didn't do that, given the shape of the arc the book was doing with respect to Luc's lack of understanding of Oliver's background and how it affects him, and the way the reader is introduced to that along with Luc, which couldn't be done in the same way if the reader saw things through Oliver's eyes as well. But I think it could still have been done, even if different, and it would have been a stronger book in a number of ways.
My other main issue is that Luc's friends, colleagues, and boss all feel a bit too much like caricatures to me. It's all very funny but sometimes it feels a bit mean tbh, and I don't really believe in them either.
I don't consider the issues to be dealbreakers at all and would still definitely recommend this book to others, though. It's a charming, immersive, feelings-ful book that I couldn't put down once I started!
There were aspects of it I thought were super great. It's one of the best iterations of the fake relationship trope I think I've ever seen, where it is so clear how having a fake relationship, given the people Luc and Oliver are, is exactly what they needed to be able to develop a healthy strong relationship with each other, instead of the pretending just being a narrative excuse for pining and not talking about it. It was delicious watching them deliberately and carefully work on their shit despite the various setbacks, to develop into a strong and supportive relationship between people who care about each other very much for exactly who they are.
I also love Luc's mom's relationship with her best friend Judy. It's a relationship that's clearly demonstrated to be their primary, most important relationship, and very committed, and also not romantic/sexual. That kind of relationship doesn't get visibility very often, and I was charmed by it.
My biggest problem is that I wish the book had done more to demonstrate what Luc's good qualities are from the beginning. He's cruel, he pushes people away, he's a general all-round asshole, and does not show many redeeming traits to the reader. And although this behaviour is understandable given his history, and although the book is very readable and appealing in the moment, and although Luc gets better, it makes it hard to understand why anyone (friend or fake dating partner) might have stuck with him for so long. And he stays in this mode for such a large percentage of the book! It's very possible (probable) that he does have good traits even when he's at his most disastrous that the people around him can see but aren't visible to the reader, given that his POV is so self-hating, but...as a reader I think it's important to have more of a sense of those good traits in the moment.
I think that if this book had done the more usual romance novel thing of alternating viewpoints between the two leads, that might have helped - because then the reader could see Luc from the outside through the eyes of someone who likes him better than he likes himself. I can understand why the author didn't do that, given the shape of the arc the book was doing with respect to Luc's lack of understanding of Oliver's background and how it affects him, and the way the reader is introduced to that along with Luc, which couldn't be done in the same way if the reader saw things through Oliver's eyes as well. But I think it could still have been done, even if different, and it would have been a stronger book in a number of ways.
My other main issue is that Luc's friends, colleagues, and boss all feel a bit too much like caricatures to me. It's all very funny but sometimes it feels a bit mean tbh, and I don't really believe in them either.
I don't consider the issues to be dealbreakers at all and would still definitely recommend this book to others, though. It's a charming, immersive, feelings-ful book that I couldn't put down once I started!
