Reviews
This was a cute easy to read teenage romance. I finished this in one day and enjoyed the concept of falling for your best friends sister who is off limits. It kept my interest throughout and I had a lot of fun reading. I did however get annoyed by how many times this book said the word Bro. I understand that the story is called The Bro Code and all but it was so overused and started getting annoying. Overall, this was an extremely quick read and was quite enjoyable.
TW: Sexual Assault I received an eARC of The Bro Code by debut author Elizabeth Seibert in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Wattpad Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book! I am pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book; that is not to say that this book was perfect, but it was an enjoyable read. The Bro Code follows a group of ‘bros’: Austin, Carter, and Nick through their senior year of high school. When Carter’s younger sister Eliza returns from a year abroad in Australia, Nick is forced to confront what the Bro Code really stands for while simultaneously navigating the trials of college admission, the value of friendship, and love. The pace of Eliza and Nick’s relationship is not only realistic but it was a healthy relationship consisting of healthy communication which pleasantly surprised me. I found Nick’s character growth to be realistic and consistent. Throughout high school, he was able to remain oblivious to the struggles that the women and girls in his own life have had to face and how his actions perpetuate misogyny and sexism, even if that isn’t his intention. When I started this book and made note of certain comments and actions such as rating girls by bangabilby and the evident toxic masculinity, I may have made note of them but I did not expect for this behavior to be addressed, and I especially did not expect for this behavior to be one of the major themes of this book. The growth that Nick (as well as Austin and Carter) goes through is centered not around his relationship with Eliza but rather his internal toxic masculinity. There were some areas that I felt could have been handled better, specifically the conversations surrounding sexual assault, I think that this could have been handled in a more realistic and more impactful way. I think that this book would benefit from heavier editing, there were many blatant typos, grammatical errors, and format errors. The writing style was not the most appealing to me; I disliked the use of abbreviations in actual verbal conversations. I also was not a fan of the narration, Nick often addressed the reader directly or used phrases such as ‘this is because of so and so, of course’, however this is a personal dislike. Some of the writing came off as juvenile and slightly awkward but I was able to look past the errors and enjoy the plot.
Okay, after the first half of the book I had my review ready – that the book was okay and fluffy. However, the second part of the book was much better. Despite it all being a fluffy read for teenagers, it talks about some important topics – for example, gender discrimination and consent. I admire how the author incorporated these important issues into the book, so when a teenager reads it they can learn something. I enjoyed the idea of the book - I'm never getting tired of best friend's sister/brother's best friend trope. It's just a classic trope I love, but I had a very hard time getting through this book since the writing was not my thing. In my mind, the characters were a bit flat – I wish we could get to know more of their characters traits throughout the book. I liked the references to different movies, and I liked the friendship between Carter, Austin and Nick (though I think Austin was a bit omitted in some parts). I was a bit disappointed because they all acted like such stereotypical high school characters – the player, the nerd etc. I enjoyed the part where at the beginning of every chapter there is a bro rule – some of them were adorable, and some were pretty weird. Overall, it is a nice read when you want to relax. It was a bit annoying for me though, but I think I might be too old for teenage books (I’m not suited to sustain such amounts of awkwardness and cringe). And, there is a big plus for approaching a serious issue in an approachable way.
