The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

I'm so conflicted.

On the one hand this was a fun romp with so many things I love: friends to lovers, a roguish ne'er-do-well, a Victorian girl who defies the life laid out for her, a v sweet boy who plays a string instrument, and PIRATES.

But all of these great elements seemed thrown together in a way that was designed to entice someone with interests like mine, without really delivering with any sort of depth or nuance. The plot felt like an afterthought, and most of the characters were pretty one-dimensional, including the main character, Monty.

Monty Monty Monty. Most of my issues with this book stem from Monty. The aforementioned ne'er-do-well was fun at first, but quickly became annoying, especially in how obliviously he threw around his privilege in front of his sister, Felicity, and half-black best friend, Percy—neither of whom have the luxury of Monty's white male privilege. Felicity and Percy do call Monty out on his privilege several times, so I think the author was attempting to show the racism and sexism of the time through Monty, but I felt so uncomfortable having the main character, who the reader is clearly supposed to like, say some of the things that he did. I might have been able to get over this if he had gone through extensive character growth and specifically apologized about his behavior, but he barely does that. Just a vague apology (only to Percy) about being an overall shitty friend, but they don't really TALK about it. Monty and Percy don't really talk about anything, which is the reason for their “misunderstanding” throughout the book. And I'm so over the whole slow-burn romance just because the characters won't talk about their feelings. I would have probably LOVED the slow-burn if they hadn't kissed near the beginning, but they did. And then they just got awkward and wouldn't talk about it. So. Frustrating.

Also, for a YA book, I was a little uncomfortable with how dependent Monty was on alcohol. His indulgence in vices was clearly meant to be a big part of the book and his personality (re: the title), and I have no problems with alcohol use being depicted in YA books in general, but he was literally an alcoholic. Several times he talks about NEEDING a drink to get through something, and it's often the first thing he seeks out when he goes anywhere. I also don't feel great about the bi representation in this book—”drunk promiscuous bisexual” is sort of Monty's entire personality, and that's....not great. Again, I think if he'd gone through more character growth, I wouldn't have minded this, but he just ended up feeling like a caricature to me.

I loved Percy. I truly don't understand what he saw in Monty, but you can't choose who you love and all that crap I guess. I honestly wish the book had been from his perspective—I would have liked it so much more. I also absolutely loved Felicity. She was sorely underused, and despite not being blown away by this book, I can't wait to read the second in the series, since it focuses on her.

This may not be fair, but I think that if this book wasn't so beloved I might be a little easier on it, but since I went in expecting to love it, I think I feel even more of a need to express why I didn't. I expected so much more, and those expectations left me more disappointed than I would have been if I'd gone into this without all those 5 star ratings in the back of my head.