Review: Epic Melodrama
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 19, 2014
I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me (as witness all the five-star reviews), but this entire series is nothing less than an epic melodrama. At over 800 pages for all three books, "Rough Boys" is like a gay soap opera that just keeps going and going and going...Since the books are really not separable (they are each essentially a chapter in one larger book, no endings to speak of, and the next book just picks up where the last one left off until you get to the last of the three), I am going to review all three here (Runaway, Redemption and Revenge).Pros - like any soap opera, no matter how unbelievable, you do tend to become addicted. I was not all that happy when I finished Runaway, but I couldn't help but read all three.The main characters were universally likable, readily distinguishable from each other (there's a lot of characters!) and the dialog was, for the most part, well-written.Cons - But the books were somewhat less than original. In fact, Ms. Vaughn has managed to shoehorn in every single M/M fiction convention imaginable - plus some that I wish she had omitted.The books have more than their share of miscommunication fiascos, young gay men refusing love because they feel they're not worthy, multiple characters with drug and alcohol addictions, teenagers running away from abusive parents, teenage prostitution, at least three different characters in the hospital, parents who "don't understand", a band manager who tries to keep his guitarist high on smack, an enabling mother who fails to notice that her son has been handcuffed to a hot radiator and locked away without food or water for days - let's see, is there any trite gay romance meme that I've missed? Oh yeah, at least one character ends up handicapped.Then there are the memes that turned my stomach. Be forewarned that this book is relentlessly violent, including a particularly horrible rape, a father who whips his son bloody, one of the main characters gets shot in the chest, a character who gets crippled in an alley, at least two characters who were tortured and even a serial killer who preys on young gay men!Even that would have been OK if all the characters were not so stereotyped. One of the lovers is a 6' 6" black man with a member as big as a log (no stereotype there, right?), not to mention outrageous portrayals of several effeminate young gay men.The author, I suspect, was trying to be really inclusive, but unfortunately, she got so much of it wrong. Some female authors of M/M fiction really nail the male characters and their personalities. Others struggle to keep them from becoming parodies of teenage girls - as this author did. She even got her terminology wrong, and in at least one case, in an offensive manner.She calls her feminine male characters "femmes". She, obviously, is not very knowledgeable about the LGBT community or its terminology. She is constantly referring to main male characters as "the femme did this " or "the femme did that". She obviously did not realize that the word "femme" never, ever refers to a gay man, no matter how effeminate. It is a term that applies, exclusively, to lesbians, as in "butches and femmes". The author should have done her research:From Merriam Webster dictionary:"Femme - a lesbian who is notably or stereotypically feminine in appearance and manner ".Boys cannot be "lesbians" (or by extension,"femmes"). The author got the whole gender thing wrong.What's worse is the term she used to describe a trans woman. She has one character say "He's a shemale, and not a natural one". She got the pronoun wrong (should be "she"), the word "shemale" in an insult, and what the hell is a "natural shemale"? This error is a huge affront to the trans community, something she could have avoided with basic research:From Dictionary.com:"Shemale Definition:  a genetic male who has both male and female characteristics; a male who has undergone surgical feminizationUsage:  derogatory slang "Note the last part: derogatory slang. It is unacceptable (like using the "N" word), ignorant, and has no place in a book that is supposed to be supportive of the LGBT community.The author didn't even get the band terminology right. What is a "music manager"? In context, I'm certain she was referring to the band's manager (booking tours, promotion, etc.). What does a "music manager" do, categorize and file sheet music and CDs?The sex scenes are plentiful and endless. As a matter of fact, probably 70% of the book is sex scenes with the ultimate M/M cliffhanger - will the boy bottom? It's hard to escape the conclusion that the author confuses sex with love, as her characters enjoy five or six orgasms in a night. Wish I could do that!On top of all that, there is just some really sloppy writing and/or editing to contend with:"Don't you dare breath [sic - breathe]"He was thought Kaeden might lose it..." ???"Tim's brain was firing on all synapsis [sic synapses]"It will never workout [sic work out] between us" (what, going to the gym together?)"Ty's [sic] was sure he would combust""Lightening [sic lightning] never strikes twice"I know that most authors of M/M romance don't make a lot of money from their e-books, but don't they have a friend , partner or relative who can edit the book for them? To be fair, this author's editing is not the worst I've seen in recent gay fiction, but it's also not very good.The last problem was one of the most annoying. The books were, apparently, not formatted correctly, either for the Kindle Fire or for the Kindle Cloud Reader. In the first book, the indenting was out of control. What's a normal paragraph indent - 3-5 characters? The whole book had half-page indents for every single paragraph which was distracting, not to mention the eyestrain it caused me.The latter two books have really strange type problems. Right in the middle of a paragraph, the type size goes from, let's say 12 point to 4 or 5 point, making it very difficult to read. In the last book, one whole section toward the end shrunk down to almost unreadable miniscule type for 15-20 pages.One last thing (and maybe others can enlighten me about this) - in all three books the letters "ba" appear at the start of each chapter and each section within a chapter:He was going to the storebaThe next day, he went to work.Does "ba" represent something that I'm just not familiar with? I found it most disconcerting, but it may be some kind of publishing convention that I've just never encountered before.And, not to be too snarky (other people have mentioned this), the awful art on the book covers almost prevented me from buying them. The cartoon-like figures depicted didn't look effeminate, they looked like women. In fact, until I read the blurbs, I thought the books were heterosexual erotica.I gave the book three stars for the sheer effort involved. And, if this author ever writes another book that is more believable, less over-the-top, less violent, less derivative and more accurate, I might consider buying it. But I can't honestly recommend any of these three books - and more important, you really have to be willing to commit to all three, or don't bother with them at all.