The King's Men
Ratings100
Average rating4.3
objectively not anywhere close to an actual 5-star read - but these short kings maintain an unbroken chokehold on my remaining brain cells.... :)
never been so wrecked by a book. Read this 3 or 4 times over the past years and every time it GETS me
I'm out. Too much triggering stuff. There's better books out there to waste time on than this.
This was a perfect ending for this trilogy. While I had my doubt on the first volume, I've been totally captivated by the second and this last one. The characters evolution was absolutely wonderful (even if I wanted to smack some of them in the head especially the main one sometimes) and the way their friendships grew stronger with every step wonderful. I shouted in happiness when **that kiss** happened of course, and the romance was perfectly written in respect to the two characters history. I didn't think I'd like a story centered around a sport (albeit fictional) but I was taken by surprise and really happy with it!
I was not sold on this series at all. It took me *literally* two weeks to even get 100 pages into the first book. It's a messy mixture of a mafia drama, a sports rivalry, and a romance, frequently the timelines described don't make sense & don't line up, and Andrew may be the most detestable character ever fucking written...
... and it's literally one of the top 3 series I've read this year.
sixth read (2023): i said. No Comment.
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fifth read (2022): literally the best book in the world idc
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fourth read (2021): i???ve been reluctant to mark this as read even though i finished it last week because i want to find a way to write a review for it and i keep coming up short. this will have to do: these characters stick with me through everything. the impossibility of their fight, their kindness in the face of cruelty, their resistance to become what they???re expected to be, the realisation of their own worth. it pulls at all the right strings and draws me in wholly, until i am (gladly, happily) enveloped in it once again. i think i???ll stay here a while.
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third read (2019): me: really past me? five million stars?
also me, adding some more stars in my heart: did i stutter
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second read (22/01/17 - 29/01/17): five million stars
“Fight because you don't know how to die quietly. Win because you don't know how to lose.”
jfc i love all of the foxes so much?? like i would protect them forever until my dying breath and then even in the afterlife i would Find A Way??
not sure i can write a coherent review for this book because my emotions are all over the place but i am just. so proud of all my kids. so proud of kevin. so proud of andrew. So Proud of neil (basically the embodiment of the “started from the bottom now we're here”-meme). always of all of my girls & of wymack.
i love the slow burn so so so so much. it's done so well, so in character, i totally knew it was coming and i was still Shook???.
also i will literally love this series forever but also?? so few other books can live up to the high standards i have now. anyway. i can't believe it's over again?? i legit wouldn't mind just rereading it again right now. my body is still radiating pride. i think i'm just going to cry for a couple of hours. i think that might be what i really fucking need right now.
“This was everything he wanted, everything he needed, and Neil was never letting go.”
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first read (17/03/16 - 18/03/16): five stars
I kind of don't know how to review this series? Because, to be honest, there is a lot that's really messed up about it, which I'm too tired to go into. But for some reason I just...loved it??
Watching Neil grow as a character and gaining a new family (found family always gets me) was beautiful and at the end of the book I actually got invested in Exy itself, which is, haha, something I never expected. The last game did feel a bit strange to me, however, like the author didn't really know how to write it, but it still felt satisfying.
I loved all of the Foxes so, so much. It felt so brilliant to finally see Kevin losing his fear and becoming the ‘Queen'.
The only thing I didn't really like was Neil and Andrew's relationship, which just felt confusing and unsatisfying to me, but ah well.
The epilogue was utterly shocking, but also managed to complete the story in a fitting, if incredibly dark, manner. After the violent, shocking death of Riko, it was also lovely to contemplate on Neil's growth and change as a person and the future that he now had, that he never could have dreamed of. While some aspects of this book were strange or disappointing to me, Neil and his family, the Foxes, made it all so worthwhile to read. As messed up as this series is, I'm glad I read it.
SO GLAD THEY CUT THE EXY GAMES DOWN. i did not need 4+ pages of a sports game i did not come here to read
4.5 stars!
I don't know what to do now that I don't have the Palmetto State Foxes to read about. The characters truly made the story in this trilogy and I grew so attached to them. While there was a bit of a deus ex machina moment in the middle—in addition to some ridiculous plot points—the story kept me so captivated and invested. I said it about book 2 and I'll say it again: Andrew Minyard is the most fascinating and complex character I have read in a long time and I loved every scene w
this is part two of my review. I have a lot to say, and Goodreads doesn't like that, so part one can be found here
things emi still doesn't understand about this series even though she's a foxhole court expert
Okay so we all know that the Raven's are a cult. That is pretty obvious if you read the series. But like what about Palmetto State? I don't know much about college even though I've attended two of them but do sports teams live together? Do they spend SEVEN hours a day together constantly? Seth and Allison had friends outside of the team but DID ANYONE ELSE? Did Matt hang out with anyone other than Dan and Neil? Neil literally had their class scheduled memorized. And what classroom the class was happening in? Is this normal??? Is Palmetto State also a cult???
Neil is literally like, “i'd die for all of my teammates.”and then is like “we;re not friends. I don't have friends.” Like I know Neil is an idiot but he should have caught on sooner that they were friends.
Nicky's timeline? He spent a year at pray the gay away camp. I would imagine he was like 15? 16 then? Then he came back and was depressed for a year. Then he went to Germany for I would think another year. So at 18? Then came back, graduated high school, then went back to Germany? Then came back when Andrew and Aaron's mom died. And then he bought a house? At like 20? What 20 year old can afford a house that he doesn't even live in? Or rent out?? Anyways, then Andrew and Aaron and him went to Palmetto State. WHEN DID NICKY LEARN EXY? Nicky also mentioned in book three when they went to the cabin that he doesn't like the outside, so why would he be playing Exy??? And when did Nicky become good enough to play Exy at a Class I college level team?
Neil, at like 17 years old, was able to drag his dead mother out of a car, bury her on a beach in California, and walk away. Like how?? This is impossible. Like, how did no one question a teenager burying things alone on a Califonia beach? He also would have to have dragged her. There would have been drag marks on the sand. That would have drawn attention. The book also stated he walked two miles down the beach to bury her. HE DRAGGED HER FOR TWO MILES. And also, do you realize how deep you need to dig to be to bury a body? Like I'm not a professional body buryer expert but I'm pretty sure it's gotta be pretty deep. Animals will dig that kind of thing up. Neil's mother's death is the most unrealistic thing in this entire book to the point where my last reread, I skipped over the page or so where it talked about her death because it pisses me off so badly
This series starts off with Neil moping around in Arizona and smoking. It is established as early as possible that Neil smokes. Also, in book one, after Abby does Neil's physical, Neil is super anxious and the book mentions that he “wanted a cigarette so badly he ached.” However, in book 2, Wymack is like “since when does Neil smoke?” and in book three, Nicky says something super similar to this. I'm assuming that Neil just didn't smoke all the time or he didn't smoke in front of others, but the book never explained this. This is actually a plot hole and I want an explanation.
How did Kevin's hand heal if he didn't go to a doctor? Riko broke his hand and Kevin showed up at Wymack's apartment bleeding. Abby wrapped him up and they took him to Palmetto State. But Abby isn't like a broken bones doctor. She's a sports nurse. I don't think Kevin went to a doctor once? Maybe he did but idk, it was never mentioned once. Wouldn't Kevin's hand need physical therapy too? Did he go to physical therapy? It sounds like his hand injury was pretty serious if even the Raven's were like, “you can't play here anymore.” I don't think his hand should healed as well as it did. He shouldn't have been able to play with it again at the very end.
Andrew's medicine. I'm forever confused. That's not how medicine works????
So Palmetto allegedly has campus security. But Officer Higgins just shows up at their dorm in book #2. And Thea just shows up in book #3. The campus security must not be doing that great of a job. What's stopping a crazed Kevin Day fan from just showing up at his doorstep? Absolutely nothing it seems. Doesn't seem safe.
Honestly, you should probably put everything that happens on this list BECAUSE NOTHING MAKES SENSE ABOUT THIS BOOK. NOTHING.
It's honestly awful idk why I'm such trash for it..
That's about it. There's definitely more things to say about this series, but I don't have enough time to list them all. If you've read everything I've said, thank you so much. I appreciate you and that and everything. Also sorry for a two part review. Goodreads sucks sometimes.
Byeeeee
3.5 stars
More consistently interesting than the first two books, but there were still too many tedious parts and nonsensical details sucking the fun out of it in between the good parts for me to fully enjoy it.
these books are so fun!! very weird, but so fun!! i really enjoyed this series and im really happy about how it all ended :)))
this book, this series, is absolutely ridiculous. i almost rated it lower when the torture scenes were happening because wtf?? but i think i love neil josten too much for that
I stick by my initial assesment that this series is basically a sports anime on stereoids. It just has that feeling. And then the mafia and the deep trauma is the stereoids. Like it's just so dramatic.
And it's gay. Oh... it's gay. Canonically gay, unlike sports anime where you just want them to be gay. I'm sorry, I know I'm talking too much about the sport anime similarity, but it's just so fitting. IT'S SO GODDAMN DRAMATIC.
I love all of the characters, except probably Kevin, but I'm comforted by the fact that none of the characters really like Kevin either and I am therefore not alone in this opinion, lmao. He's a very important chracters, but he's super annoying so I'm like ‘whatever, dude' when he's around.
So I love romance, and this series is like the first real slow burn I've read in years. Literal years! I don't think I've read a slow burn since I was an avid fanfic reader. It's really been a good while. I forgot how they're both infuriating and endlessly satisfying. Although, this relationship doesn't give as much fluff as us romance lovers may be used to because trauma is a thing and it messes people up real bad, but like stilllllllllllll it's so goooooooooooooood.
I knew going into this series that there HAD to be gay romance, it was basically the selling point for me to get into the books at all. But I was generally concerned if I had played myself and been lured by what was simply fan-wishing and not actually canon because the first book gave me NOTHING. And I had re-assess everything from that point on and be like “is the slow burn that slow or is it simply never coming???” and the fact that this was a real book and not a fanfic with the specific goal of getting two people together by the end. I simply didn't know (I really try to not know a whole lot about the books I read before reading.) It came, though, and I was not disappointed (high five!)
I wanna point out, though, that this series is heavy, stressful, traumatic, and dramatic. Do not go in lightly, and be aware of trigger warnings. Abuse, sexual assault, torture, a variety of mental issues are all a very big part of the story, and I would advise anyone for whom this might be a trigger to consult other readers before going into it to assess if it is too much. The books do not take anything lightly and some things are quite graphic, which you should be aware of.
That being said, holy fucking shit I loved this to bits.
The series is best on a whole, I honestly don't know if I would have continued with enough interest after the first book if I did not know that what I was really there for was coming later, especially if I would have needed to wait a year or two for the next book. I would have been satisfied with the story at that point and not needed more if I didn't know there would be more than more.
The series overall is fucking fantastic. Don't let your lack of care for sports get in the way of reading. It's too good for that. It is a made-up sport, so no one knows anything when they first read, and while you might be confused in the first book, by the third you know it.
Cannot recommend it enough. (But remember the warnings!) You might need a thing for the dramatic to truly appreciate it xD
This series had one of the best character development.
Kevin went from calling himself second best to calling himself a queen
These books were recommended to me by someone who knew how much I love the Captive Prince. I can't say I loved these but I definitely always love a character like Andrew.