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Puppy Love (2009)

by Jeff Erno(Favorite Author)

3.32 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1603814337 (ISBN13: 9781603814331)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Fanny Press

series

Puppy Love

review 1: Petey is in a subservient relationship with dom Matt throughout the book. The book also showed poor Petey defending his choices throighout, using his own rational, which is clearly born out of a sense of low self worth, he makes matt a god like figure. it was bearable, it was YA, its fiction, it was a insecure main character and i didnt have to take it too seriously. However, To my suprise, Jeff erno decides to make Petey confront the real questions, the tough facts about his choices. He made Petey face the questions about how his choices simply reflected his insecurities and were in fact very unconcious life decisions. That point in the story was so compelling, (im refering tonthe encounter woth cameron) it made reading the entire novel so meaningful, but then the autho... morer failed me with how Petey responds to this moment of truth. It is in that moment, the story failed me. Petey shows himself as the child he truly is. To illustrate my point, in a conversation in the book, when cameron implies that Petey's poor sense of worth makes him desire Matt's hurtful behavior, Petey defends himself with the most ridiculous point:“Cameron, do you have any idea how much Matt has done for me?” I snapped back. “He rescued me like I told you last night. He bought me new contact lenses, haircuts, brand new clothes. He got me a whole new wardrobe! Plus, he takes me places with him and pays for everything. You saw what he gave me for my birthday present last night! How can you say that he is treating me bad?” -Excerpt From Puppy LoveI think Jeff Erno knows that Petey is a silly boy who thinks immaturely, who in their right mind cant see that the above dialogue makes Petey sound insanely childish and unwise. The author refers to Harry Potter in the novel, and makes an meaningful point on how a boy with a shattered past rose to heights to become a hero, and in comparison Petey accepts how he cannot be a hero for himself and how he needs Matt to be his hero forever. It wonderful that the character is so aware and acknowledges his deficiency but the implication of this leaves a horrible aftertaste when you realize that the character has conciouslessly decided to never grow beyond his child/victim identity, the character that has given up on growing-up and chosen to be his boyfriend's little baby forever (the two leads actually discuss how they are like father and son). After all the realizations, and the hard questions Petey still takes the low-road and chooses a easy childish existance of a man-childPetey says the trade of in the relationship is that, matt benefits by dominating petey, and petey gets benefitted by getting matt to take his entire responsibility for his life. Petey wants to be a baby forever, he doesnt want to actualize himself like the chatacter he mentions, Harry Potter. Matt does plan to teach him self defence and what not, but thats not really mastering your fears. Spoilers****which made me respect the author tremendously I had to control my disagreement with Petey's choices throughout as I did not agree with e protagonist when he said he loved Matt. Petey has extremely low self esteem and has projected a God like value to Matt, The protagonist is simply catering to his insecuirties with his worshiping of Matt because that would mean that Petey wouldnt have to work on becoming a real adult.
review 2: Ugh, where to start. This is a terrible book, is poorly written, has zero legitimate growth or plot development, obnoxious and inconsistently written characters, and despite being 534 pages long, book ends without any real resolution but with the statement "To be continued in Book 2"! I would put this firmly on the "do not read" list. I have to strongly warn for the use of the term "fag" in a non-ironic, completely offensive way. After getting called a "fag" by two psychos who beat up Petey (the narrator), an event Matt (the romantic lead) witnesses and rescues Petey from, Petey talks to Matt about being called a "fag." Matt says, "I'm not about to allow MYSELF [my emphasis added] to be labeled a faggot, cause that just isn't me. I'm not at all the faggy type." About five minutes later Matt shouts "Suck my cock, fag!" at Petey while he's coming. That's a quote from the book's "hero" during the first sex scene between our two protagonists. Charming, isn't he?And of course Petey embraces the term for himself not because he's proud or he owns the term, but mostly just to distinguish him and his fellow "inferior" friend Drew from "superior" guys like Matt. Matt calls Petey a "fag" pretty much every time he comes. One time after Matt says "Suck it fag!", Petey notes: "he (Matt) began to verbalize the reality of his (Matt's) superiority." If this was just a sexual thing, it would be one thing. But this is the overwhelming reality of this book. Matt is a "superior person" because he's tall and strong and athletic and smart and is not a fag, even though he kisses and sucks and fucks a guy. Petey is inferior because he is short and skinny and is a fag, because - well, because he's a bottom, I guess. And because Matt says he is. And Petey explains why he believes it, for excruciatingly long and boring passages.I'm a monogamy girl but I read books with where one or both partners cheat. I read books with open relationships. I read books with polyamory. I have never read a book where one character cheats and the other a) knows b) hates it c) is told to just accept it. Why shouldn't Matt have sex with whoever he wants? He's so superior! And it's his right. And he didn't promise to be faithful. Here's a direct quote from Drew (Petey's instany best friend): "In the end, they return to us. Shouldn't that be enough?" Oh, and d) when the cheater is told that their partner hates the infidelity, continues it and acts like he's doing the partner a favor by being in the relationship at all. That Matt, such a charmer.And just when you think Petey is going to stand up for himself and realize that he's not inferior, that being with Matt isn't a reason to take whatever Matt gives him, we get 30 pages of interior dialogue explaining why Petey is inferior, why he is so lucky to have Matt in any way Matt wants him, there's a brief (like one page) reconciliation scene and then "To be continued."And dear God, the writing. Half the time the author didn't use contractions and use constant use of the term "then" was maddening. "Matt then turned around. He then picked me up. I then shivered in his arms." I could not get through a paragraph without then thinking about how bad the writing was. It's so bad, it's like when you're in a stinky bathroom and you're breathing through your nose, trying not to smell it, but you can't ignore it, since you have to work not to smell it. It's distracting, annoying and you really just want it to stop.So why did I keep reading this? Because Petey is sweet and charming, has had a difficult life, is suffering from low self-esteem and an eating disorder, and you want to root for him. I thought that using him as the first-person narrator for this was the author's (admittedly ham-handed) attempt to show that innocence. I mean, Matt looks this bad through PETEY'S perspective - how bad would he look in third person! And while I don't get the humiliation kink taken to this extreme, as part of a negotiated power exchange, I can be entertained by it. At the beginning, Petey makes an argument about voluntary slavery and open-mindedness meaning you have be open-minded about what other people are doing even if you wouldn't choose it yourself, which made some sense. But this. This isn't rational and negotiated power exchange. This isn't an unhealthy power exchange that results in growth by the main character(s). This is a complete sexual innocent who is reeling from a violent attack and has terrible self-esteem. This is not the ideal candidate for a relationship with someone who isn't monogamous. Or with someone who's "scenes" encompass violence, humiliation, and evoke painful and terrifying memories. But when the only growth in Petey's character is that he decides to take whatever his "true love" Matt sees fit to give him and be happy about it, I was just DONE.Yeah, I hated this book. less

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