My Killer Vacation

by Tessa Bailey

RATING: 2/5 ​

I have never been more disappointed in a Tessa Bailey novel than this one. I am honestly so surprised that it was published. It was overall weird. Firstly, Miles’s narration was awful. I honestly think that if you cannot embody the voice of a man, it might be best to not write in that perspective. Like - show his side to ANY dude and they’ll tell you that this was way too off, and in no way believable. “clearly interpreting my silence as irritation, with her, Taylor turns on a heel in the sand and sashays towards the far side of the cove” No matter how much RuPaul a straight man watches, there is no way he says that.

  Another big issue with this novel was the relationship between Taylor and her brother, it honestly felt like really gross. No sister and brother (gay or not) would ever speak to each other like that - it really felt like this book was supposed to feature the “gay bestie trope” and last minute it was removed. No matter how close me and my brother are, I will NEVER… NEVER tell my brother that I am going to buy a dildo. And I sure as hell would never tell my brother details of my sex life…

   Now back to Miles, there are points where he made allusions to be jealous… OF HER BROTHER and basically seeing him as a threat… like wtf… Like on p.118 Miles would make a comment how annoyed he was at Taylor getting male attention and then in the same paragraph… makes comments about how her brother seems decent and then goes back to talking about the guys who are hitting on her. Like I said very weird.
Now, not only that but this novel is riddled with inconsistencies. So on page 118, Miles says that she is a suspect and that he hast to distance himself but then nothing happens really because he still in that same situation where he’s with her and then on page 121 says that she isn’t a suspect anymore because the time of death made it so their alibis were fine. He never received a call, he never left her side during those pages… but she’s suddenly not a suspect?

   Taylor’s character is also sort of annoying. I have friends who are elementary school teachers… and I swear not everything is about how your students related to this issue. She acts like she has no adult friends who she talks to and relates to. Not everything has to be “but my fourth grade students” or “if one of my fourth grade students acted like this I would…”

   I am only giving this 2/5 instead of 1/5 is because the sex scenes and the sexual tension were extremely well written.
​
   Anyways, hope this helps… you can skip this book honestly… Booktok lied.

Review originally written and posted 9/23/2022