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fieldfarmer's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Xenophobia, and Homophobia
Minor: Eating disorder, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry
Most of the -phobias are just descriptions but play a part in the plot of the book. Fatphobia is something the main character used to face and has internalized it, but he is working on it <3 Eating was a little disordered as a resultfreckled_frog_boi's review against another edition
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This book was - eh - alright.
It was a great book idea - with gay and bi rep, a Muslim Pakistani-British love interest, poc characters, and a few convos abt male body image - but overall, the writing reminds me of bad fanfic.
It was very character-driven, which was weird cuz the character development really sucked. The deep realizations were not new to the characters and were super basic.
Many side characters fit into stereotypes like poetic gay, mean asshole friend, meaner bully, rude teammates, The Hispanic Dude (literally 99% of his lines are just cursing in Spanish) - and the only girl is a pick-me. Please make the characters well-rounded if you were to write a book detailing the intricacies of a soccer team's inner relationships. It makes for a crappy story otherwise.
Many side characters fit into stereotypes like poetic gay, mean asshole friend, meaner bully, rude teammates, The Hispanic Dude (literally 99% of his lines are just cursing in Spanish) - and the only girl is a pick-me. Please make the characters well-rounded if you were to write a book detailing the intricacies of a soccer team's inner relationships. It makes for a crappy story otherwise.
A lot of the writing is disjointed (we never hear why he calls his mom by her first name, for one teeny tiny example - no spoilers). Nothing is truly explained - there's an argument at the end between two teams, and it's never explained why the fuck that happened, and nothing is impacted by that happening; it's just there. So I'll be honest, the humor feels like it’s slapped in and just isn’t funny. (~"someone should make a hashtag about how math sucks"~ ??)
The romance seems very sex-appeal-based, and the chemistry just doesn't seem to be there. Instead of being made to feel like they are definitely in love, we are just told that they are. I wasn’t rooting for them, really. I guess it felt more like a hook-up than a potential long-term relationship. I also think it's weird to have the MC focus on the fact that the love interest was so small and cute when he’s a grown dude. Felt a bit fetish-y to me, idk.
My best advice is if you want an amazing gay-sports book, read The Foxhole Court. (honestly this feels like a fanfic based off of it tbh, you won't miss anything) <3
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Islamophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Vomit
Minor: Religious bigotry and Panic attacks/disorders
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