hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about the bro code by Elizabeth A. Seibert. i gave this book 1/5 stars. this book comes out September 22. i honestly hated this book so freaking much, and to me it was just super problematic, and i person think that they need to fire the editor that read and edited this.
one of biggest issue with this book was that this book was the sexism that got pushed threw the pages to the readers. to me, i felt like this book put ever single woman in the world into three categories. 1. you are a god damn slut 2. you are ugly and no man will every want to be with you 3. you’re cute, but i still don’t really like you that much, and you most likely are somewhat of a slut. and also, there was also so much talk about how there was “bros before hoes” and it went on for chapters and chapters, and something that honestly went on for the whole book. and that there was more that went on about how there was all this crap like ‘she has to kiss more’ and ‘you cannot say i love you.’ it was just so annoying and it honestly just pissed me off so much.
in the end of the novel there was some redeemable parts, i mean it was really one part and the rest was a shit show. but, the author made up some ‘villain’ that was actually not that bad, it was just the stereotypical bad guy teacher. but, this guy was only considered a villain since he was a good guy, and wasn’t the biggest dick in the world, like them. but, the guy friend group did talk about it a little bit, but still, you guessed it, thought it was bullshit and it thought it was crap. and anyway, there was all this talk that in my mind, got to be unforgivable.
but, if you’ve been here for a while, or even just read a couple post, you know that i am brutally honest and i speak my thoughts. but, i wanted to bring up the fact that in this book, the last 50% was a shit show, but then when we got to the last 25%, it was a shit show on fire and all the water in the world is gone, and they couldn’t put it out for anything. and everyone on goodreads was like “the ending was the most emotional and the best part.” but, this was easily the most problematic part of this whole book, and it was a shit show.
i also really wanted to talk about the writing for a quick second. to me, i feel like the whole writing was just so shitty, and it was just so terrible, like it feels like this book was written by a teenager, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but this was just a bad one. and, i feel like a big thing for me when i read a book is the writing as a whole, since that obviously makes the book, but this was just so bad, and i honestly couldn’t work with this whatsoever.
as someone that is younger, i think i can talk about this more then a 20 year old, so i’m just going to let it loose. but, the writing style was just so bad, especially if they are going to be a teenager and like if the author is trying to make this whole book more have the whole high school feel. and i actually feel like this happens in a ton of YA books, and you sure as hell know i do it in ever blog post i talk about this. but, this author used SO many of these cringey abbreviation, and these weren’t the typical ones like “lol” or “idk,” like the basic ones, that literally everyone uses. No, this book used “defffffffffff” and “bisexys.” and it was even more and more of these, and make sure you remember the bisexy, since i’m going to talk about it later again.
i don’t know if this is only me, but i found it so weird, and made me very uncomfortable, but the love interest name was Eliza. and if you read the author’s name in the first paragraph, it is Elizabeth. so, yes the author’s name is Elizabeth, but this love interest is Eliza. and i didn’t even put this together, but i was reading goodreads reviews, and i just thought it’d put it out there in this. and honestly, i don’t know if it’s just me, but i found it was like the author’s dream high school life, that didn’t happen. anyway, if she really couldn’t think of another name, she seriously could have googled ‘best baby names for girls.’ like, it is that easy.
i also found it super annoying that there was a ton of crying and the overuse of the word ‘bro.’ and it got to the point that i found out, and came to the conclusion that all wattpad books have a ton of crying, which is kinda weird. but, if you wanted to know how much they said the word ‘bro,’ within 10 pages they said it 35 times, which is honestly just so insane, and i think it is literally so insane in my mind.
this next paragraph has major trigger warnings for sexual assault. so, in this very lovely book, there is this part where Nick and Eliza are having this heart to heart and they are growing as a couple and are getting closer. but, Eliza opens up about how her friend in Australia and how her friend got sexually assaulted by her boyfriend. and Eliza went on and on about how this was an issue and how her best friend confided in her. and basically, when this comes up, Nick was like “oh well, that sucks for her.” so basically no sympathy.
talking about the sexual assault again, i found this topic was talked about in such a terrible way. to me, when sexual assault gets talked about in book, i really like it to be talked about in a respectful way, but also a learning experience. and also such a thing that people can talk about and it can become a bigger topic. but, Eliza brought it up, and then in the next two pages, this was all dropped and it was never brought up again. and at the end of the day, i am not happy whatsoever on how this was brought up, since this is such a serious topic, but this was used as like a very little ‘plot point.’
i also wanted to bring up the whole ‘bisexy’ word again. to me, i just found this so disgusting, and i just hated how this was talked about in this book. also, when Austin did come out as bisexual, he was looked at as ‘gross’ and that he wasn’t ‘normal’ since he’s bisexual. and, when he comes out as bisexual, the first reaction of one of the guys was like “WHAT you can’t be bisexual, you’ve seen me naked! You’ve seen my DICK.” i was like what the hell??????? and it just pissed me off so much, and i thought it was so crappy.
just staying on the topic of Austin, i found it so weird and toxic that this book was always talked about how he isn’t white, and it is so much dIvErSiTy. and personal, it also kinda annoyed me how they talked about him not being white. and in this book there was a whole lot of crap that there was
i would honestly hate for a bisexual teenager, or even a teenager that deals with sexual assault to read this book, since how shitty everything was talked about. and i would honestly hate for someone to be going to Barnes and Noble, or even an Half Priced Books, and they see this book, decide to pick this up, and then read it. and, they haven’t came out yet, but they read this book, read the coming out scene, and then have to hide their whole sexuality and then can’t be themselves, or even worse, kill themselves.
Nick- he honestly made me so freaking mad. he was honestly such a dick, and was such a bad person to his friends and honestly really everyone. i personally do not understand why he was so into soccer, and like wanted to play in college or whatever, but he like refused to workout or even just simply go on a run. and he was such a problematic character and had no redeemable moments.
Eliza- to me, i feel like in this whole book, she had no real personality and had such a flat character. we never really got that much about her, like we had these basic crap, so like she lived in Australia for a little bit, she drew a lot, and she liked orange. and none of this is a real personality, as far as i’m concerned. and we where supposed to see her as this amazing love interest, but she was like so freaking flat.
trigger warnings- rape, not good talking about sexuality
anyway, that’s it for today. i feel like i did a crap ton of complaining for this whole review, which necessary isn’t a bad thing. but, i do think this book just needed a ton of editing and whoever edited this just needs another crash course on editing, or simply needs to be fired and to go work at bookstore instead of being an editors, since they let this shit show get published. mind you, i read the ARC of this book, so who knows if they decided to fix this, but i have a feeling they didn’t.
r.bookish 