as someone not planning on reading the books, what’s the deal with tlg? what happens in it that everyone dislikes?
takes a very deep breath okay well. it's a lot. i'm gonna try to be concise, since i know i won't be brief. or maybe this will need to be multiple posts i don't know. but we'll get going and see what happens. maybe i will expand on some individual topics separately. but for now this is what i think most of the biggest issues + concerns + takeaways are.
the first thing i have a really hard time with is how shane is handled in general. i'm sure everyone's tired of hearing that but like... y'all it's so bad. he suffers so much undue humiliation in this book and i can think of no other way to describe it. he is the best player in the league. he's one of the best players in the world. tell me why everyone is constantly mocking and deriding him? and i'm not even being sensitive he is genuinely the butt of every single joke in the whole entire book. like what the fuck is this.
he's also so uncharacteristically CRUEL at several points it's honestly mind boggling. "your mom hasn't been texting you all week" "sorry i don't want to smoke pot" et cetera like who the fuck is this? it is ooc and it's just to manufacture misery for ilya. really weird.
RR needs to stick to only writing white characters because the way she handles her characters of other races is shockingly offensive. and that's that on that.
everybody's wearing really bad outfits the whole time. floral print teal tanktop and gray athletic shorts and black toms. jesus christ
moving to ottawa and joining a terrible hockey team destroys ilya's mental health and yet the book continues to try to convince us it was not a mistake. again: what the fuck is this?
the conflict within the plot of this novel is weak and the characters suffer unjustly at the hands of it. we needed there to be conflict because a book is supposed to have conflict but we picked the worst possible conflict ever and then did a really bad job handling it. 0/10
hayden pike needs jail time. he needs to be shot. he is a villain. shane accepts and forgives so much bullshit. how stupid does hayden have to be in order to do something so fucking careless? and then they forgive him and within a page it's over. when personally i think they should've beaten him to death with hammers. he quite literally put their LIVES at risk. jesus christ. and he is never able to actually stick up for shane in a way that matters. he immediately folds. it's despicable.
shane is clearly suffering from an eating disorder. this is not up for debate. i don't care what RR says. he's got an ED. and yet, like everything else in this book that has potential to be meaty/interesting, this eating disorder magically fixes itself. after he gets outed and eats a snickers bar. then in a later timeskip chapter we're told he has beer and chocolate cake because he "decided he was still a good athlete even if he ate burgers" the fuck? cus that's totally how lifelong eating disorders work and are "cured". sure rachel
we spend paragraphs upon paragraphs early in the book with shane where he thinks about how much he loves his team, loves montreal, loves winning games, loves winning cups, plans to retire in montreal et cetera. THEN literally and i am not even kidding we get ONE throwaway line about him deciding to leave. he simply up and decided he didn't want to be in montreal anymore. we get no character moment. no exploration. no on page discussion, even. it is one throwaway line in a TIMESKIP chapter. the BIGGEST career move of his life, one that could quite honestly prematurely end his career, one that no doubt caused him such agony and such distress. and we get one line. he spends no time on it. we spend no time with him while he spends time on it. absolutely batshit insane
ilya's depression is built up throughout the entire book and also again dealt with in a few throwaway lines. he tells shane that he gets sad sometimes "like his mother" and shane's like okay we'll get you on drugs. and then in another throwaway timeskip it's mentioned he takes meds. and that's all she wrote. that's literally it.
ilya's therapist fucking sucks. absolutely fucking sucks. her practices are shockingly bad and irresponsible.
ilya clearly subconsciously blames shane for his problems and blatantly resents the fact he moved to ottawa. he never addresses any of these thoughts or concerns directly with shane. mind you shane never asked him or forced him to do this but ilya's therapist is like "how many things do you do because shane wants you to" bitch NO THINGS!!! THAT IS NOT WHO THEY ARE. sorry i'll stop yelling i know we're trying to have a civilized conversation
i fucking hate "that's why you're my favorite son" i fucking hate it sorry it's terrible. i wrote about this before so i won't spend more time on it but just know i fucking hate it.
it's also mentioned in a throwaway line that shane came out to his team at some point and some of them "don't like it". but we never see this scene, and we never find out what kind of conflict exists in the dressing room beyond JJ being an absolutely terrible person.
everybody is always making fun of shane and i don't like it. despite the fact he is clearly visibly struggling. the way the other characters interact with him is bizarre. he's referred to as "miserable" and "annoying" by his friends and loved ones. there's teasing and then there's like okay well is shane just a nuisance to you? is shane just a nagging bitch wife to you? is shane just here to prop up the scenery? what is he doing here? can we get him out?
the "would you choose me" bullshit is stupid. shane is not the bad guy for caring about his career. conversely neither is ilya the bad guy for wanting to feel valued. but that is not how that conversation should have happened. but shane was not the villain. i will stand by this.
shane mentions in his internal narration that he doesn't like it that ilya is playing on a bad team. ilya mentions in his internal narration that he doesn't like playing on a bad team. this begs the question: why the FUCK did he move to a bad team? nobody likes this. nobody is having fun with this. nobody wants to be here.
the way RR handles kink + their sex life pisses me off and is quite honestly at some points contradictory. what do you mean shane doesn't like to be called a good boy? and once again we cannot ever actually fully commit to a kink or a sex act without first including a disclaimer. "shane wasn't actually into [blank] but he likes it when they [blank]" well i have news for you man, that means you're into that. sorry. i know. we'll give you some time to grieve you sick fucking pervert. you're going to burn in hell for being into that, btw. just so you know.
shane is pretty explicitly dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia that manifests itself as actual homophobia directed towards other gay characters in his internal monologue. i have nothing else to say about this at the moment i'm just putting that out there
the writing is bad. there's no prose worth mentioning. some of it's corny as fuck. it feels like we just sat down and put some thoughts in a word doc and then said "yep that's good" and sent it to print. like it simply cannot be taken seriously. what is this now honey i had to avert my eyes on account of the embarrassment
as i said in my comments on the first book, most of shane's narrative exists to punish him. can't make heads or tails of why. "was shane a terrible friend" no, bitch. the fuck. what are we doing. he hates himself. we never find out why. we never get to see him Stop hating himself. the way he feels about himself is evident in the way he feels about others and the choices he makes. his lack of self esteem and immense control issues are quite literally running his whole entire life. and everyone in his life constantly reinforces his beliefs about himself. he's annoying, he's miserable, he's too controlling, he's not a good captain, he's not even his own parents' favorite son. like what are we doing? and why are we doing it?
and every time RR speaks on this book i just get madder. that post where she was like "i know it must seem like i was very hard on poor shane in the second book" poor shane? i'm not sure i care for your tone.
the plane crash shit is stupid.
the plot is lazy. the conflict is bad. the characters are not themselves. which is weird, because they should be. this is where they come from. this is the world they exist in. but who are they?
you can say/think whatever you want but it is clear to me from this book that RR is not interested in shane as a character, even a little bit. everything that happens to him happens off page. everything that matters to him is taken away or permanently altered and he just has to deal with it. he does whatever the narrative needs him to do at that moment even if he wouldn't do it because somebody has to do it. it's lazy. it's not fair. it's honestly so bizarre i can't wrap my head around it.
you cannot make me believe shane is behaving in character in this book. he is short tempered, yes. he gets irritated, yes. he is rigid and uptight, yes. all of those things. he is not cruel or unkind. and he is always different with ilya, a softer version of himself in some ways. i want to help, how is your father, do you like russia, are you okay, i was thinking about you, tell him i'm okay or he'll worry, et cetera. he is always so brave. he is always trying so hard to make those emotional bids for connection. he is always trying. and he loves ilya so much. he wants to help however he can. and he genuinely does. the flippant, dismissive, MEAN way he addresses ilya and their issues in this book is ridiculous. it's ridiculous.
i've seen the argument made that "some adults prioritize their relationships" and "people grow and change" well shane and ilya would not throw away their careers so they could fuck more often. sorry. they would not give up literally everything they have ever lived for or worked to achieve in order to have a dog and a white picket fence together. they only get to play hockey at their level until the age of 35ish. shane's 30 in this book. you're telling me they wouldn't hang on for a couple more years, a couple more stanley cups, and retire together at the age of 40? they have the rest of their fucking lives to do this shit. they would not. would NOT do it at this point in their careers. they basically commit career suicide. they would not do that. they wouldn't. sorry. and the priority for them has never been the relationship. and it shouldn't be. it doesn't have to be. that doesn't mean they don't love each other. it just means their system of prioritization is compatible, and they would be able to come up with something that works. they are quite literally neutered by the forceful imposition of heteronormativity in this book.
i don't think the conversation had with the head of the NHL or whatever he's supposed to be would go down like that. bare minimum they would've had legal representation present.
i absolutely fucking despise this scene with literally every single cell of my being this actually turned my stomach when i read it. what's going on here. why is this a humiliation ritual. he's the best hockey player in the world. what's happening.
i'll be quite honest and for real with you i have to expand on this: the introduction of heteronormativity to their storyline literally kills their dreams. i've talked about this before and i'll link the rest of my meta below but she absolutely destroys these characters by changing them to fit the "dream". everyone wants a house in the suburbs, right? everyone wants two kids and a dog, right? once she "cures" them of their unsavory need to compete + win, then they just become something else. and i don't like what they become. shane would have to be dragged off the ice and shot in the parking lot behind the arena like a lame horse before he would willingly retire.
it's mentioned dozens of times over how much no longer winning fucks with ilya's brain and his self esteem. to the point where he develops passive suicidal ideation. this is bad. all bad. all the choices made for the characters were bad. it makes no sense.
the plane crash shit is stupid. said this already but i'm just reminding you. it's stupid.
the way shane proposes is stupid. sorry we've been dealing with emotional turmoil for the last few months but you just almost died so i think we should set up a couple of lawn chairs in the backyard and get married. hello?
this isn't even everything but like. isn't this enough? baffling. some other meta i've already made about this topic:
ottawa plotline crit 1 2 3 4
RR + shane’s book characterization 1 2 3 4 5 6
TL;DR: i hate this goddamn book. sorry this got so long but like. YOU ASKED! and i answered. and i'm sure i'll have more to say. sorry i got kind of riled up this is mostly word vomit. but like jesus christ. jesus christ. i feel like shane and ilya are trapped in here and i can't get them out. i can't save them. all i can do is watch with unending wide-eyed horror as things get worse and worse. oh my god
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