An Incomplete Investigation of the Crimes of Bride by Ali Hazelwood | LDBC Ep. 24 

Love a multi-hour video about a book I'll never read

Damn, I'm not even 10 minutes into the video but I have to comment *immediately* because you are truly speaking straight from my soul. I cannot put into words how much it frustrated me how nothing this book was. How much it refused to do anything interesting at every single turn. Misery and Lowe (and also the worldbuilding but that is a whole different mountain of frustration) feel so incredibly shallow that I had the exact same thought about how this felt like fanfiction in the way that this MIGHT be interesting if someone else had already done the heavy lifting and created better characters. They both get one token interest each (hacking and architecture) just for the narrative to touch on that in the most pathetic and superficial way possible. I was simply dumbfounded at the way that Lowe having designed the house himself for his family and how it's supposedly so beautiful was treated as important just for me to realize that I had not the slightest idea what the house even looked like because Ali Hazelwood cannot be bothered to actually put words onto the page. I have never related to a review this much and I've barely seen any of it, so thank you already lmao

MyNameisMarines call books like Bride, Lightlark, Fourth Wing, From Blood and Ash, and Powerless "trope-led books" (or a "trope checklist books" by other people) where the story exists solely as vehicle for to fulfill the tropes rather than the tropes being used as tools to explore the story and the characters.

I haven’t read the book but it sounds like the plot around the child (Anna?) would have made more sense if she had a mental disability. It could explain why she acts younger than she is, why the guy is so overprotective. It could also explain why the guy was impressed with Misery saving her. If the werewolves society revolve around strength they’re likely ableist and look down on those with disabilities. So he tries to protect the child from the other wolves ire and then comes Misery who also cares about and protects the girl. But I guess that would be too much nuance, and give the wolves negative traits. Is it possible this was a maffia romance that was then turned into a vampire-werewolf romance?

Omg I can't with the thumbnail, this is gonna be so much fun

I suffered through the love hypothetis as somebody currently in uni for general biology, but I kind laughed at the well some genes mutated and well now werewolf suprise😂

It is so gratifying to have all of my thoughts and criticisms while reading this book spoken aloud. Instant subscribe.

Oh I am excited for this episode, this book is my biggest dissapointment of the year simply for the fact that I have read this exact plot multiple times before in fanfiction and most of them were so good, and actually said something about having 2 people from actually different societys and upbringings, raised with diffenet ideas interact and learn from each other while having an actual romance. Instead I got whatever bride is😅 Also the knot part, I am sorry I have read stuff like that before but never have I cringed this hard...also this dynamics are way more fun in queen romances with the werewolves tbh

I haven’t finished the video so I don’t know if you talk about it, but it’s so funny that Misery is named that and her brother is…Owen. Like damn I guess only she gets the interesting name.

Tea and listen time, yay!

All the people with similar tastes to mine (likers of sensible and competent enough stories) have not like this urban(?) romance(?) with a sloppy side of fantasy book (or her other books) so I think I won't be reading this book or any other works in this author's catalogue. This is added to the fact from what I could gleam is the author's unwillingness to grow from the fanfic writing phase of just relying on the groundwork created by other people to make stories by admitting in an interview around 2 years ago to not being able to come up with original ideas so her agent just gives her a list of characters and plot tropes for a story then the author works backwards from there. I would not be surprised if Bride was also made this way too given how trope checklist(y) it sounds on top of the lack of care to explore the characters and the world they are in because meeting the trope quota is what matters. It's one thing to bounce ideas off of someone, but this author doesn't even have ideas or the semblance of a concept to bounce to someone. What is the point of being a creator with the backing of big tradpubs if you have no idea on what to create or stories to tells? Like even Alex Aster of Lightlark's infamy came up with something 10% original from her head in spite of the very obvious inspirations from the Hunger Games and ACOTAR in that story. This author writes contemporary romances and this is her first "fantasy" book and it really shows she is not that interested in or respecting of the potential of the fantasy genre. The author likely made this book because Romance Fantasy is the hot thing right now. This is very similar to the Fourth Wing author who wrote only contemporary romances before the publisher Red Tower sent out a request for an author to write a Romance Fantasy book for their Romance Fantasy line and the Fourth Wing author just took the job because "fantasy is easy to write because you can make up anything and don't have to do any research (like knowing how to pronouncing the Gaelic language at all and that it is still used by living breathing people or spelling bo-staff like bow-staff) like contemporary romances" (which made some fans of Fourth Wing kind of confused by this interview answer, but if you pay attention to Fourth Wing and Iron Flame the least explored parts are the "fantasy" elements. I'm assuming these kind of fans are putting in more work into the fantasy element in their fanfics and headcannons and were hoping for that kind of passion they put in from the creator or projected their belief that the creator cared about fantasy writing despite the bare bones fantasy elements) or something along those lines.

The Many Crimes of Bride would be a good book title.

Yes! Finally somebody agreeing with me that episode 9 was worse than episode 8! 8 had potential and could go along with the themes of the evolution of good and evil instead of being a cheap, incoherent nostalgia cash grab. ... Sorry got side tracked XD great video. Too bad that all romance books are basically the same and therefore feel cheap and boring. And Ali Hazelwood has some ace or demi characters, but even that is solved by the snap of a finger instead of being discussed or explored. There are always kernels of ideas and then puff- nothing. And regarding fanfiction, my friends and I always said: fanfictions are the better stories the authors ignored. Don't get me wrong they can be bad, but also bold and more intresting, because nobody would get them through publishing

Well this book has one good use for one of you duckies... it's a great sleeping aid.

I love hours-long book bashing sessions ❤

yayyy an episode that doesn't come with required reading!!!!!!!!!!

Omg 3 hours long. We’re feasting tonight bois

2:15:09

This was my first, and I think only, Hazelwood book lol. I listen to a lot of historical romance and wanted something a little different. WELL. Different it was. I didn't hate everything about it, and I think listening to it in German as practice made it more engaging for me, but the plot ended up being rather uninspired, which was a disappointment for sure. Also, I really just could not with the magical expanding werewolf **** 😫

It's okay. American houses are cheap. Any made in the last 30+ years at least.