jellybeyreads reviewed Four Letter Word by J. Daniels
Review of 'Four Letter Word' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I'm feeling very conflicted about this book. Often for me 3 stars means “I feel neutral, this read was fine and I guess I enjoyed it but I’m pretty sure I’ll forget about it in a few weeks.” But I don’t feel neutral about anything in this book.
I hated the male MC, he was SUCH a freaking dude bro. The female MC and her friends are so perky sorority- girl type. The female MC cried almost constantly and she was just so cute. It's not her fault, she was born that way. She gets mad--she's cute. She cries--she's cute. She's being emotionally vulnerable --she's cute. Which means the male MC never really takes her seriously. And for chrissake stop referring to grown women as girls and chicks, BOTH of you, and your friends too. Funny editing error, the author changed the female MC's name partway through, she'd been Sydney …
I'm feeling very conflicted about this book. Often for me 3 stars means “I feel neutral, this read was fine and I guess I enjoyed it but I’m pretty sure I’ll forget about it in a few weeks.” But I don’t feel neutral about anything in this book.
I hated the male MC, he was SUCH a freaking dude bro. The female MC and her friends are so perky sorority- girl type. The female MC cried almost constantly and she was just so cute. It's not her fault, she was born that way. She gets mad--she's cute. She cries--she's cute. She's being emotionally vulnerable --she's cute. Which means the male MC never really takes her seriously. And for chrissake stop referring to grown women as girls and chicks, BOTH of you, and your friends too. Funny editing error, the author changed the female MC's name partway through, she'd been Sydney dawn but became Sydney grace. The writer made weird stylistic choices that I loathed, like (1) avoiding subjects in the male characters' dialogue ("Need you to know. Never wanted to eat that hot dog. Gave me indigestion. Feel like crap. Wanna go home and need the keys. Sleep it off.") and THAT IS NOT HOW ENGLISH WORKS GAH AND I SAY THAT AS A LINGUIST AND A DESCRIPTIVIST and (2) getting creative with her quotative verbs (he shared, she questioned, he put out, etc) and (3) (oh geez I'm turning more and more into the "you crazy kids get off my lawn" guy) SO MUCH swearing,"fuckin(g)" showed up 264 timed (thanks kindle search function) almost exclusively as an intensifier and the male characters especially cannot express a thought without it, and I probably hated it because it's so typical of dude bros (Which, of course, male MC is) and dude bros are so not my cup of tea, in life or in books. Oh and one more stylistic choice I detested--constantly nouning adjectives. "Her sweet" =her sweetness. My red= my red hair. His dirty= his dirty mind/his dirtiness.
And yet. So help me, I liked it. Or at least, I was compelled to keep reading. I cared enough to want them to get their happy ending. So I'll read number 2 and hate myself just a little but I really want to know what happens to male MC's best friend. (Not female MC'S best friend. Ugh she calls her friends "Hon" and just yuck.)
So 3 very scattered stars I guess.
Oh hey also, female MC is Sydney (syd) and her brother is Barrett