My Review of
“Binding 13” by Chloe Walsh - 2.5/5 ⭐️
DISCLAIMER: Anything negative i say about this book is not a personal attack on you. how could it? i don’t even know you. if this is your favorite book ever, great! i’m happy for you! just remember that i do not know you nor do you know me, so this is not a personal attack. you can have your opinions, and i can have mine. cool? cool.
✨ minor spoilers ahead! ✨
well, this book did what it came to do: entertain me. i had fun reading this and feeling emotions as i read. i do, however, feel like this book needed an editor and to be cut down a few hundred pages. i really liked every character besides shannon, and we’ll get there, and i absolutely hated bella, but honestly, who doesn’t?
for starters, the repetition and miscommunication in this book? horrendous and it made me want to pull my hair out in the worst way possible. this could have easily been cut down 300 pages if shannon and johnny actually shared their feelings and stopped lying to each other and themselves. also, side note, love getting invalidated as an aroace person 🙃 i’m not empty, butthole.
anyway, i digress, reasons why i hate shannon: 1) because of how short she is (i’m 5’2”, she’s two inches shorter than me, so i’m allowed to hate her for that reason) and 2) there was no character arch with her. she was the same on page 1 to 603, and she didn’t move the story anywhere. i wouldn’t be able to tell you her personality besides that she’s a “boss” at GTA. ok? anything else? i also hated that she took johnny’s words as the exact opposite of what he had said 50 times. another reason for the repetition and the one step forward and 20 steps back.
some chapters were not necessary, either. majority of the short chapters were recaps of what i just read about? don’t really know why we needed them, but whatever. and i kept a counter for how many times they called shannon small or tiny. 55 times. 55 times, they called shannon small. that is not necessary. and i might’ve even missed a few more times, but jesus christ, i do not need to be reminded that this girl is short 55 times. 5 will do.
overall, the book was fun. just so many cringes i have with it, and majority of them are shannon and some of the really sexist hypocrisies the male characters have. it just kind if felt like a better version of self-insert fanfiction.
✨ my horrible description of the book:
the kissing booth + after + rugby = “Binding 13”
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After my initial review of 'Binding 13,' I've had more thoughts brewing, especially regarding some of the common questions and themes readers often wonder about. It's always interesting to dig deeper into a book, even one that left me with mixed feelings! A lot of you might be curious about picking up 'Binding 13' for yourselves. When I first looked into it, I wondered if it was available on platforms like Amazon Prime, which is super convenient for digital reads. While it's not typically included with Prime reading, you can usually find it for purchase on Amazon Kindle or in physical format. And speaking of physical format, prepare yourself! This book is quite a commitment page-wise. I remember thinking, 'How many pages is Binding 13, seriously?' It definitely felt like a hefty read, contributing to my feeling that it could have been trimmed down by a few hundred pages. All those moments of miscommunication really add up, making the story feel longer than it needed to be! Now, let's dive into some of the prominent 'Binding 13' tropes. If you're into sports romance, especially rugby, this book definitely delivers on that front. The focus on the boys of Tommen and their athletic lives is central to the story, which can be exciting if you love that competitive, team-focused dynamic. However, for me, some tropes felt a bit overdone. The classic 'miscommunication' trope, for instance, reached frustrating levels. It felt like every chapter, Shannon and Johnny were just about to communicate, only for one of them to jump to conclusions or hold back. This really contributed to the book's length and my feeling that the story took 'one step forward and 20 steps back,' as I mentioned in my review. I even had 'Total Tabs: 46' in my copy, marking all the moments that made me go 'ugh!' Another recurring theme, which I found quite distracting, was the constant emphasis on Shannon's height. I literally kept a 'Shannon is Small Count: 55' tracker! While it's a character descriptor, hearing it mentioned 55 times (and I probably missed some!) felt excessive and, frankly, unnecessary. It didn't add to her character development, which, as I noted, was largely absent throughout the book. If anything, it felt like a running gag that quickly lost its charm. The journey from a complex friendship to romance is another trope here. It could have been a beautiful slow burn, but the endless back-and-forth and lack of genuine progression between the lead characters made it more tedious than captivating. When you're dealing with a book that's hundreds of pages long, you really hope for characters who evolve and move the plot forward, not just recycle the same arguments. So, if you're a devoted fan of high school sports romance and can overlook some repetitive storytelling and frustrating character dynamics, you might still find entertainment in 'Binding 13.' It does have its moments. But if you're like me and prefer faster pacing and more direct communication between characters, be prepared for a bit of a marathon. I think understanding these common tropes and the book's length beforehand can really help manage expectations and decide if it's the right read for you.
