Review of SPOILER ALERT by Olivia Dade
“Please tell me people who look like us can be loved.
Please tell me people who look like us can be desired.
Please tell me people who look like us can have happy endings.”
Finally, a book with a plus-sized main character who changes for no one and nothing!
The Game of Thrones-based SPOILER ALERT is a book with an addictive writing style and fun characters. I really liked the body positivity, but the storyline was a bit more boring than I expected and lacked cute moments. Also, the whole cosplay thing was very nice, but for a romance novel I expected more.
Synopsis
Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.
April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.
Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.
With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?
Review
I really like this cover. I love the font of the title! Still, I like the original cover a little better and would have liked to see it come back for the Dutch version of SPOILER ALERT.
I found the storyline of SPOILER ALERT a bit boring and awkward if I have to admit it. The fact that Marcus Custer-Rupp is based on a real actor gave me a strange feeling. I also expected more cute moments and I didn’t really get those in SPOILER ALERT. While this is kind of the point of the book. This is supposed to be a fun and sweet contemporary story, and I missed those cute moments. There was a great attraction between the main characters, but a relationship is more than that. There was no real chemistry between the characters, which is very important for a romance novel.
I did love the fact that April is fat and that she was good in her skin. People often see the word “fat” as a swear word, when it’s just a descriptive word like skinny. Our society doesn’t accept being fat enough yet and that needs to change! I also thought the reactions of different characters in the book were well done. April’s online friends were very supportive while April’s family was more trying to change her.
Dade’s writing style is very nice to follow. I would definitely read another book by her! I found the format interesting. In SPOILER ALERT, the author alternates between pieces of text, messages that Marcus and April’s alter ego’s exchange to each other and pieces of fan fiction.
Then again, what I liked was the whole cosplay thing. I myself cosplay in my free time as well and really enjoyed reading about it.
Would I recommend it?
Not necessarily, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend against the book either.
Details
Trigger warnings
Fatshaming, fatphobia, bullying
Representation
Fat main character, main character with dyslexia, side character with ADHD, lesbian side character, bisexual side character
Genre
Romance
Pages
416
Publication date
October 6th, 2020
Publisher
Avon
About the author
Olivia Dade grew up an undeniable nerd, prone to ignoring the world around her as she read any book she could find. Her favorites, though, were always, always romances. As an adult, she earned an M.A. in American history and worked in a variety of jobs that required the donning of actual pants: Colonial Williamsburg interpreter, high school teacher, academic tutor, and (of course) librarian. Now, however, she has finally achieved her lifelong goal of wearing pajamas all day as a hermit-like writer and enthusiastic hag. She currently lives outside Stockholm with her patient Swedish husband, their whip-smart daughter, and the family’s ever-burgeoning collection of books.
heavenlybookish 