The Foxhole Court
Apr. 30th, 2024 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearSo, I heard about the All For The Game series by Nora Sakavic on BookTube recently and it was then highly recommended to me by a friend who's a huge fan. The concept didn't really appeal to me at all, but I decided to give it a try and approach it with as open a mind as possible.
And that's the only reason I got as far as I did - which was only just over halfway through the first book...
I'd heard that the series is 'really weird' with a 'unique voice', 'amazing characters' and a wonderful 'found family' vibe...
But the whole of the first chapter was really boring, and basically just a load of obnoxious sports bros talking about sports.
I persevered, hoping it might get more interesting.
The first female character makes and appearance for about two pages around 25% through - and all the male characters up to that point are toxic, needlessly violent and demonstrate an objectionable level of frat-boy humour.
I'd also heard about the great queer representation - but the gay character, Nicky, just wanders around spouting offensive comments about predatory behaviour and leching after everyone in sight (rape jokes are never funny) - and, while him being gay goes unremarked-upon by the other members of the group and that's good, the fact that he's just as obnoxious as everyone else isn't good representation, in my view.
The blow-by-blow accounts of the sports matches are very tedious (at least to me), and very little actually happens in terms of real plot.
There is some interesting backstory quite a way through, but it's delivered in a massive expository speech to the protagonist by one of the characters, talking about another character who isn't there, so its impact is lessened rather, and it's a huge info-dump all in one go. Plus, it reveals the only non-white characters as all being evil...
When the other team members are finally introduce (almost halfway through), things do pick up a bit, but not for long, as they're barely in it. Also, one of them tells the protagonist they were worried he wouldn't get to meet them because he'd be so put off by his introduction to the team being all the obnoxious ones - which should have been a concern of the author for her readers...
The toxicity and violence shown towards most of the group - by each other - is very unappealing. I love the found family trope - but I wouldn't want to pick *any* of these characters as my family!
Two of the female members of the team seem pretty great - but they're only in it for a page or two at a time, and only about three times up to the point when I stopped reading.
I was kind of intrigued by some of the relationship dynamics - but then the obnoxious guys took the protagonist out to a club. Neil told them he didn't drink and didn't want to do drugs. Then, Andrew drugged his drink (with the full knowledge of the others), which then gave Nicky the opportunity to sexually assault him (with the assistance of one of the others) - and I was done.
Whilst I have been told everything ramps up in a really interesting way towards the end of the first book, and gets really good in the second and third, I have no desire to spend the amount of time required with these characters to find out if it would eventually become more appealing to me.
I really don't understand the massive hype and obvious extreme enthusiasm of the fanbase of this series!
Oh well - I really wanted to like it and I did try - but not for me.
[Later edit: I watched a two-hour deep-dive on the whole series by my favourite YouTuber and I get it now. I wasn't approaching it with the right mindset - it's angst/trauma-focused fanfiction - which I totally understand because I've read and written enough of it myself! Okay, mystery solved.]
And that's the only reason I got as far as I did - which was only just over halfway through the first book...
I'd heard that the series is 'really weird' with a 'unique voice', 'amazing characters' and a wonderful 'found family' vibe...
But the whole of the first chapter was really boring, and basically just a load of obnoxious sports bros talking about sports.
I persevered, hoping it might get more interesting.
The first female character makes and appearance for about two pages around 25% through - and all the male characters up to that point are toxic, needlessly violent and demonstrate an objectionable level of frat-boy humour.
I'd also heard about the great queer representation - but the gay character, Nicky, just wanders around spouting offensive comments about predatory behaviour and leching after everyone in sight (rape jokes are never funny) - and, while him being gay goes unremarked-upon by the other members of the group and that's good, the fact that he's just as obnoxious as everyone else isn't good representation, in my view.
The blow-by-blow accounts of the sports matches are very tedious (at least to me), and very little actually happens in terms of real plot.
There is some interesting backstory quite a way through, but it's delivered in a massive expository speech to the protagonist by one of the characters, talking about another character who isn't there, so its impact is lessened rather, and it's a huge info-dump all in one go. Plus, it reveals the only non-white characters as all being evil...
When the other team members are finally introduce (almost halfway through), things do pick up a bit, but not for long, as they're barely in it. Also, one of them tells the protagonist they were worried he wouldn't get to meet them because he'd be so put off by his introduction to the team being all the obnoxious ones - which should have been a concern of the author for her readers...
The toxicity and violence shown towards most of the group - by each other - is very unappealing. I love the found family trope - but I wouldn't want to pick *any* of these characters as my family!
Two of the female members of the team seem pretty great - but they're only in it for a page or two at a time, and only about three times up to the point when I stopped reading.
I was kind of intrigued by some of the relationship dynamics - but then the obnoxious guys took the protagonist out to a club. Neil told them he didn't drink and didn't want to do drugs. Then, Andrew drugged his drink (with the full knowledge of the others), which then gave Nicky the opportunity to sexually assault him (with the assistance of one of the others) - and I was done.
Whilst I have been told everything ramps up in a really interesting way towards the end of the first book, and gets really good in the second and third, I have no desire to spend the amount of time required with these characters to find out if it would eventually become more appealing to me.
I really don't understand the massive hype and obvious extreme enthusiasm of the fanbase of this series!
Oh well - I really wanted to like it and I did try - but not for me.
[Later edit: I watched a two-hour deep-dive on the whole series by my favourite YouTuber and I get it now. I wasn't approaching it with the right mindset - it's angst/trauma-focused fanfiction - which I totally understand because I've read and written enough of it myself! Okay, mystery solved.]
