Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
//001 : MARIANO (MADE MEN #1)
alright, i'm super excited to be reviewing this book, so if you have not read it and you don't want spoilers please leave in 3, 2, and 1! also beware of mentions of rape, sexual mentions, and a lot of things, especially slurs.
first off i wanna talk about our protagonist who i love very much, she's much different from a regular /ahem/ badly written female protagonist. luckily enough, she's very likable and is amusing to read her interactions with other people. my usual favorite interactions consist with her room mate aiden, who is honestly amazingly written and i honestly wish he was one of my best friends.
the character is a cocsa / rape victim, who is traumatized and has ptsd where she seems to go into a dissociative state whenever someone says a trigger or something sexual to her in a way that reminded her of her ex-boyfriend raping her at her high school prom.
as someone who is self dx with ptsd and has ptsd from traumatizing events, i'm very happy to see our female protagonist struggling with her ptsd, and how she deals with it later on. onto our deuteragonist, mariano, who is the main character, isabelle's love interest.
while i do like mariano, he seems like the regular cliche mafia mob boss whose consistently horny and of course has to be caught with some woman on his lap with a weird excuse and a situation that could instantly be cleared up in a matter of ten seconds. while he wouldnt be on my list of favorite deuteragonists, i'm glad hes atleast somewhat well written.
now, for the pros and cons round!
PROS
- the characters all have personality and individuality where they aren't all the same,
- the main character luckily understands where her significant other is coming from and understands the situation unlike a standard female protagonist who runs off without wanting an explanation for what happened -- ever
- the characters are actually funny and have character
- very well descriptive in terms of background and people
- the inclusion of italian culture[although seeming last minute for the wedding], and their traditions during weddings
- the main character luckily knowing what the fuck they were doing the entirety of the time
- aiden's entire character, instead of yelling at her for being stupid and getting involved with a mob boss and kicking her out, he gets annoyed and asks her why shes suddenly hanging out with the mob, satisfied with her answer, he's happy to know shes safe and doesnt immediately pounce on her and tells her to let him know when shes late out
CONS
- there is a very descriptive rape scene in the book from about our protagonists trauma during prom, which can be very trigger for csa / cocsa / rape survivors. never is there a warning for this.
- the amount of inconsistent times the main couple break up and get back together again, and usually they have to be assisted with other people in order to get back together again
- how creepy landon is, not only does he have sex with the protagonist while shes drunk, but he is in the russian mob and tries to have her as his sex slave, he technically also raped isabelle, as she was not in the right state of mind to give consent to sex. and she immediately regretted having sex with him later on.
- mariano. he can be well written at times, but at most time hes a jack ass and calling other people slurs.
- there is only one lgbtqia+ character in the book who is bisexual, they are a side character [friend] of the protagonist and are poorly represented. occasionally, the character will refer to her dates and when she made a joke about the protagonist wanting to know about her sexual encounters, she says gross, also saying gross when she talks about a girl she has hooked up with.
- there is a transphobic joke made about mariano telling isabelle he has a dick, therfore, making him a man.
- mariano setting rules for isabelle, one of the most common routes for an abusive relationship.
- all side characters with the exception of landon, are immediately thrown out and are never to be seen again and only for the epilogue where mariano and isabelle get married. literally. they are no longer relevant to the plot.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
roughly and in conclusion, while the writing and characters is excellently planned out and are well written, there are a lot of problematic aspects like mariano telling isabelle that she would get a new therapist even though hers is fine. i roughly believe it's well written and just needs to be sorted out, hopefully i can start the spin off of emilio.
