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A review by whatbritreads
Lingus by Mariana Zapata
2.0
*Thank you to Headline Eternal for sending me a copy of this book!*
This is my first Zapata book that I have to say I just didn’t like. I know it’s marketed as a ‘romance comedy’ but I didn’t find any aspect of this book funny. The humour didn’t work for me at all, it was a bit vulgar and disgusting and just not really to my taste. Some of it was also just really weird and childish and just resulted in making me cringe constantly, not for me. Super disappointing that I didn’t enjoy this.
The plot of this book was completely bizarre, but made even more bizarre by how insufferable our main character was. It’s a book revolving around porn stars, her best friend is a porn star, her other best friend loves porn and is in a relationship with a porn star, she herself says she loves porn and is literally at a porn convention and has a favourite porn star, AND ALSO ends up in a relationship with a porn star. AND YET. This book was pretty much 400 pages of slut shaming, and some of the most stereotypical and judgemental writing about porn stars and sex work I’ve ever seen. Objectifying, slut shaming, misogynistic, degrading.. This book had it all. And it was so ridiculous to me that you’re trying to present a protagonist who is apparently so sex positive in the first chapter, turn into the most judgemental, jealous, shallow, and bitter person ever. Kat was so unlikeable, and hypocritical given half the things she praises her best friend for, she then slates random women in the book for doing. For no reason.
The relationship in this book was so unrealistic, which is strange because MZ is usually so reliable and consistent for me. Even when her books are pretty average to me, her relationships always strike me as believable and something I root for. She builds genuine connections between her characters and makes me want them to be together. Here I truly didn’t care about their relationships, nor did I believe in it.
I think their romance started off on shaky grounds, which just led to the rest of it being a snooze for me. It was so unrealistic, Tristan strikes up a conversation in the creepiest way, and then proceeds to not leave Kat alone. He follows her around like a lost puppy. After two very brief encounters, she’s the one he calls to take care of him because he’s got the flu? One, it’s literally just the flu grow up. Two, have you not got any other friends, or any independence? It just gave me the ick. He was so spineless and bland. They also kiss around the 65% mark but insist they’re still friends and don’t do anything else until like the 90% mark and that was just annoying. I didn’t care about their relationships anyways, but this was just so dragged out.
I didn’t like Tristan at all as a love interest. He wasn’t endearing at all, and I don’t know what Kat saw in him. He was boring, had literally no personality, no hobbies, no friends… just a cardboard cutout of a man. He also pursues this woman for ages then when he finally asks how old she is, he says something along the lines of ‘wow you look like you’re 18 max, I’m 29’. SO YOU WENT FOR A GIRL YOU THOUGHT WAS A MINOR AT YOUR BIG AGE? Such a creep honestly, I didn’t like this man.
To top it all off, this book was just boring. Nothing happened, and the pacing was so slow I had to force myself to read it. Even the spicy scenes weren’t worth it. The plot was lacking, and the characters seemed to have no discernible backstory of life outside of each other. It was just so dull. If you’re looking to get into Mariana Zapata, skip this one and thank me later.
This is my first Zapata book that I have to say I just didn’t like. I know it’s marketed as a ‘romance comedy’ but I didn’t find any aspect of this book funny. The humour didn’t work for me at all, it was a bit vulgar and disgusting and just not really to my taste. Some of it was also just really weird and childish and just resulted in making me cringe constantly, not for me. Super disappointing that I didn’t enjoy this.
The plot of this book was completely bizarre, but made even more bizarre by how insufferable our main character was. It’s a book revolving around porn stars, her best friend is a porn star, her other best friend loves porn and is in a relationship with a porn star, she herself says she loves porn and is literally at a porn convention and has a favourite porn star, AND ALSO ends up in a relationship with a porn star. AND YET. This book was pretty much 400 pages of slut shaming, and some of the most stereotypical and judgemental writing about porn stars and sex work I’ve ever seen. Objectifying, slut shaming, misogynistic, degrading.. This book had it all. And it was so ridiculous to me that you’re trying to present a protagonist who is apparently so sex positive in the first chapter, turn into the most judgemental, jealous, shallow, and bitter person ever. Kat was so unlikeable, and hypocritical given half the things she praises her best friend for, she then slates random women in the book for doing. For no reason.
The relationship in this book was so unrealistic, which is strange because MZ is usually so reliable and consistent for me. Even when her books are pretty average to me, her relationships always strike me as believable and something I root for. She builds genuine connections between her characters and makes me want them to be together. Here I truly didn’t care about their relationships, nor did I believe in it.
I think their romance started off on shaky grounds, which just led to the rest of it being a snooze for me. It was so unrealistic, Tristan strikes up a conversation in the creepiest way, and then proceeds to not leave Kat alone. He follows her around like a lost puppy. After two very brief encounters, she’s the one he calls to take care of him because he’s got the flu? One, it’s literally just the flu grow up. Two, have you not got any other friends, or any independence? It just gave me the ick. He was so spineless and bland. They also kiss around the 65% mark but insist they’re still friends and don’t do anything else until like the 90% mark and that was just annoying. I didn’t care about their relationships anyways, but this was just so dragged out.
I didn’t like Tristan at all as a love interest. He wasn’t endearing at all, and I don’t know what Kat saw in him. He was boring, had literally no personality, no hobbies, no friends… just a cardboard cutout of a man. He also pursues this woman for ages then when he finally asks how old she is, he says something along the lines of ‘wow you look like you’re 18 max, I’m 29’. SO YOU WENT FOR A GIRL YOU THOUGHT WAS A MINOR AT YOUR BIG AGE? Such a creep honestly, I didn’t like this man.
To top it all off, this book was just boring. Nothing happened, and the pacing was so slow I had to force myself to read it. Even the spicy scenes weren’t worth it. The plot was lacking, and the characters seemed to have no discernible backstory of life outside of each other. It was just so dull. If you’re looking to get into Mariana Zapata, skip this one and thank me later.