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Thoughts on Check and Mate
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this was my first AH book and i gave it a solid 4 stars. i know a lot of people were complaining on the gen-z references but i didn't really mind them - it feels as if you're living in the same world as them. i agree that the chess part was fun :)the ending was very wholesome but why did it have to be a freaking newspaper article? I WANT THE CHARACTERS NARRATING!!! other than that it was fine, Mal's siblings were kind of acting unrealistically and were annoying but overall enjoyed this book
p.s nolan is such a good name
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i wrote a review for this but essential some things i liked was the romance, even though it seemed a bit rushed and cheesy; i love nolan so much. i also loved the references and the humor, typically i don’t, but i think this book pulled it off…the one fanfiction percy jackson one maybe did too much, though. i also loved the chess world! i knew nothing about chess, but i thought it was fascinating. i also liked the family struggles that mallory went through. i did wish there was a bit more from her mother’s perspective—apologizing and all because of the parent role mallory had to take. and i enjoyed the ending, even though i admit it was a bit rushed. i kept wondering when that journalist was going to come into play; i liked how she did.
one thing i didn’t like was how mallory kept being referred to as small, and nolan was big, like his big hands and feet. girl, who big we talking? cause i guarantee you it’s not that big. i feel like that’s a characteristic of hazelwood i hear.
Emma wrote: "Just finished this book and honestly I don’t think it should be considered YA. The sexual references and other mature themes had me questioning where Ali was going with this…..I thought the charac..."
I totally agree! I wrote a whole, long review but didn't rate it because I loved the cover and Nolan and found it a real page turner, but the sexual content and cussing were too much. My feelings were and are divided! Glad to see I'm not alone :-)
i actually LOVED check & mate, which surprised me bc i had read some negative reviews before starting. i agree that the sex references were a little overkill, but i went into it with the mindset that it was more NA leaning. looking back, i think the whole family problem resolution could've been handled/covered better but i really enjoyed the different type of ending (and im really picky with epilouges haha).
I loved Check & Mate!!! Though I do agree there were too many sexual references. Not saying there aren’t other books that are over the top, obviously, but I think more books need to be more filtered if they are to be marketed as YA. Would you want your 13 year old reading this? Probably not.
Isabella wrote: "I loved Check & Mate!!! Though I do agree there were too many sexual references. Not saying there aren’t other books that are over the top, obviously, but I think more books need to be more filtere..."Exactly! It had so much potential, but I had to put it down. I'm not shunning Ali Hazelwood, but just because it's about young adults doesn't mean it should be read by young adults.
I really loved Check and Mate, but I don't really pay attention to which age category a book is in, so it not being YA didn't bother me.
I gave it 3 stars when I read it. It’s not bad, but I personally did not like all the sex talk that was in the book. Like, even her young siblings knew about her sex life and that felt weird. I felt like Mallory’s personality was annoying, and the only character development she had was her increased (re)love of chess.
Pretty good, would recommend it. However, if chess drives you crazy or confuses you, don't read this because there's a lot of chess talk lol.
I thought the characters lacked depth but had a lot of potential and it was disappointing. The chess part was really fun though.
Would love to hear y’all’s thoughts! 🩷