Ava's Reviews > Astrid Parker Doesn't Fail

Sorry but no. Just no.

I kind of liked Delilah's book and I like Astrid as a character much more than any other character that appears in this series, so why did I dislike this so much? It has the same issues as Delilah, but somehow exacerbated and maybe I thought they would go away, but seeing them again made me just fed up?

So let's start with what I enjoyed, and that is Astrid. I just want to give her a hug.

But the list of my grievances will be long and bitter:

First of all, is it really so much to ask for, from an author of sapphic romances no less, to fuckin stop misrepresenting lesbians and lesbian culture? Oh my god. There will be references to stereotypes but no actual knowledge of lesbian terms. It's literally like "wow this woman has short hair, a total soft butch", butch is not an aesthetic, I scream into the void for the millionth time. Butch and femme are like "sapphic genders", it's a serious identity. Butch means subverting and performing masculinity in rejection of male gaze. Then we have the author making a lesbian character say "I don't do cis men". I'd like to believe that Blake just doesn't know how to use the word cis, because there's a couple more unnecessary instances in the book, but this one just reads especially wrong, the implication here is both lesbophobic and transphobic. And when it comes to trans topics... This book is such an example of a shallow perception of inclusivity. You have the narrative saying shit like "she was attracted exclusively to women and nonbinary people" (yeah. that is commonly known as a lesbian. you can use the word), and generally the phrase "women and nonbinary people" repeated ad nauseam but it feels performative because there's no actual nonbinary people involved in those situations? It's like Blake knows (I hope) that nonbinary lesbians exist so why not show us one, mention an ex partner like that at least? There is one nonbinary side character and I mean, they appear in like two scenes and their whole purpose is to showcase people introducing themselves with their pronouns. Nonbinary topics don't begin and end on pronouns....

But then in general, the way Blake writes about queerness just rubs me the wrong way, it feels like it's a club for the main friend group and they want to have their "queer coven" like it's some uniform experience for everyone and not complicated an varied experiences. She feels more concerned with showing it through questionable references instead, like Delilah's "queer pillows" or Jordan naming her truck ADORA (I can't get over this).

The main conflict is also something I found rather stupid? (view spoiler)[It all boiled down to Astrid and Jordan having an agreement that Jordan will do the design for the inn in the style she wants, but Astrid will claim the credit because she needs it. And then we have this big thing of Astrid feeling shitty with what she's doing and Jordan not getting credit so she confesses and they cancel the TV episode. It was glaringly obvious to me from the start that a different solution was right there. Namely, why not WORK ON THE DESIGN TOGETHER AS PROPER CO-CREATORS OMG (hide spoiler)]

People were also just generally mean to Astrid in this book and it just felt shitty to read. Idk.

I will still read Iris's book but I'm not having any high hopes for it.