As you can probably guess from my scathing review of Exciting Times, I did not expect to like Dolan's sophomore novel nearly as much as I did. Maybe tAs you can probably guess from my scathing review of Exciting Times, I did not expect to like Dolan's sophomore novel nearly as much as I did. Maybe this author has dramatically improved her writing skills over the past three years, or maybe the themes and style of this book are just much more suited to my personal taste. Either way, I was captivated by the cast of trainwreck characters and the exploration of romantic relationships that form the core of The Happy Couple.
The narrative follows five queer, Irish twenty-somethings who find themselves more or less willingly involved in planning a wedding that appears to be doomed from the start. They all gravitate around Luke, the groom-to-be and resident fuckboy of the group, who isn't a character as much as he is a man-shaped collection of red flags. Honestly, the main reason I flew through this book so quickly was that I desperately wanted to find out if and when he would get his comeuppance. It's not often that an author manages to make me hate a fictional character so intensely, but Luke's callousness, hypocrisy, and self-absolving mentality hit just a little too close to home for me. You can definitely tell that Dolan has dated plenty of toxic men and knows what she's talking about.
Overall, I found the story engaging and entertaining. Although this is marketed as literary fiction, there's definitely a soapy element to the plot: emotions run high, characters hide secret affairs from one another, and big reveals start to drop as we approach the inevitable climax. Because of its fast pace and emotionally compelling story, I think this would be a perfect read for a book club, or for someone trying to break out of a reading slump.
I also really enjoyed the prose. More specifically, I feel like I finally get what people keep praising Dolan's writing for: she really is funny, witty, and sharp. She's great at subtle characterization. Despite the occasional ham-fisted feminist rant, she managed to tackle themes of heteronormativity, emotional codependency, and sexism in a nuanced and layered way. I'll definitely make sure to check this author's other works in the future....more
My problem with this book isn't that it's Reylo fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off. In fact, the reason I decided to pick it up in the firsMy problem with this book isn't that it's Reylo fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off. In fact, the reason I decided to pick it up in the first place was precisely that I had read, and enjoyed, the first few chapters of said fan fiction.
My problem is that it reads painfully juvenile in almost every aspect. The prose is mostly fine, if a little repetitive and rife with genre clichés, but the dialogue between the main leads becomes truly insufferable after a while. I don’t understand what’s the point of writing an adult romance if your protagonists speak and act like immature teenagers. The banter between Alaric and Talasyn reads like something you would find in a young adult book about petty high school drama, not what two heads of state at war with one another would say.
One of the reasons I usually have a hard time immersing myself in romance fantasy novels is that I feel like authors want to tackle epic plots with heavy themes (war, death, oppression, genocide), while maintaining an overall light-hearted tone. The thing is, you can’t turn a story about an epic war to resist colonization into a romantic comedy. The result is jarring, and at times, borderline grotesque. There is a scene where Alaric, the Night Emperor who’s trying to conquer Talasyn’s kingdom, is publicly called out by a nobleman who rightfully accuses him of being a genocidal war criminal. Instead of sympathizing with her compatriot, whose perspective she supposedly shares, Talasyn is too busy focusing on how hot and fearsome Alaric looks while duelling him. Am I supposed to find this endearing?
This book is also way too long. In nearly five hundred pages, very little happens in terms of romantic progression. The two leads go from hating each other’s guts in the beginning, to hating each other’s guts at the end, only now they’re—spoiler—married and forced into something resembling an alliance. Most of their interactions consist in a hundred repetitive scenes where they exchange petty, childish insults while secretly lusting after one another. You’d think that two twenty-somethings trained in politics and international relations would realize that seducing the person whose help they desperately need is a better strategy than antagonizing them; but alas, them acting according to logic would prevent the author from stretching this into a full trilogy.
I’ve seen a lot of people say that The Hurricane Wars will appeal to fans of Sarah J. Maas. Personally, I’m not so sure: compared with Maas’s recent books, this is very tame in terms of sexual content. If you like the kind of YA fantasy where the main couple spend most of their time brooding and exchanging retorts instead of actually developing their relationship, this might be the right book for you....more
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