The Make-Up Test: ARC Review
Well pals, here we are again, with another advance review post! This time I’m here recapping The Make-Up Test, a debut enemies to lovers romance from Jenny L. Howe. I was super excited to snag this one early through NetGalley, and after finishing it I’m here to tell you all the things I liked, and maybe didn’t about this highly anticipated release.
As always, a huge thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this ARC, thoughts below are my own, enjoy!
I’ll rip the bandaid right off early and share: I didn’t love this. Which I cannot tell you all how much this PAINS me to write. I’ve been sitting here post-read, processing and trying to formulate all the thoughts and feelings I had throughout. Hoping I would be able to put together some level of coherent ramblings, that would best convey all the reasons why.
So, the premise I actually really loved. Here we have two Ph.D candidates in medieval literature that are exes, who need to compete for a placement? Oh and one of them broke the others heart years earlier? And we have diverse body representation? Okay. YES to all of that right? My friends where did we all go wrong?
I think where some other academia based books have done well, this one hits the ground running with some deep-cuts that often times left me feeling like a legitimate dumb dumb. Once I worked through making sense of the references, I finally started to get a sense of our main characters. Who I gotta tell ya, I COULD not empathize with.
And really it wasn’t for a lack of trying (both on my and the authors part). I wanted to love this and these main characters so badly. Allison is competitive to a fault, and Colin is kind of a dick?
Truly one of the most moving and resonate bits of writing ends up coming from Professor Wendy when she’s writing to Allison after (spoiler incoming) the death of her father. Those two-and-a-bit paragraphs had more depth, more heart, and more conviction than I found in any of the rest of novel. Ugh.
Also like POOR Monty, our kind-of-random (but very cute) Corgi plot-device that often times felt a little uh, neglected? Add to this conflict with Allison’s long time bff and roommate, the fatphopbic and misogynistic colleague, the inexplicable tension between her and her mom, her dad being a covid denying asshole. All while trying to sort out what the central love story is here? Your guess is as good as mine.
Like I said, I wanted to love this, right down to the tips of my toes, and yet I am sitting here feeling all types of ways. I kept thinking, PICK a struggle. Be less. Be more. Why DO WE EVEN LIKE COLIN? IS ANYONE LOOKING AFTER MONTY?! OH THERE IS ALSO A CAT NOW?
Friends, it did not work for me, but that’s not to say it might work for you! Grab The Make-Up Test wherever you get your books when it lands in stores and online September 13th 2022.