Review: Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Paris Daillencourt is crippled by self-doubt and anxiety. Despite living rent-free in a glossy London flat that his parents no longer use, with a designer wardrobe, he is lonely and spends most of his time with his cat. A classics student who loves to bake and travelled the world with his wealthy parents as a child, his mouthy Glaswegian flatmate/tenant has secretly entered him into the reality TV show Bake Expectations (basically The Great British Bake-Off).

Despite constantly dripping with tears and fearful of being sent home, Paris is actually doing very well, winning the first week, even though he did smash a fridge door into another contestant's head, accidentally.

The unfortunate other student, Tariq, is a good-looking, beautifully dressed, nail varnish wearing, Muslim student. Together they form a friendship, which could be more if Paris could believe that Tariq actually likes him for himself.

I liked this, Alexis Hall has a knack for showing the reader the characters' vulnerabilities whilst also filling the novel with humour and dreadful baking puns. Having said that, Paris felt awfully similar to a few characters in other books, maybe it's just they have a tendency to write young, damaged, gay men as lead characters?

What made me knock half a star off was what felt like a very rushed ending in terms of Paris' journey. For most of the novel Paris was a guy who would smile across the room at Tariq then agonise that he had embarrassed himself, and then he would stop looking at Tariq in case he had come across like a stalker, then worry he appeared to be giving Tariq the cold shoulder, and basically constantly apologising for everything, including apologising too much. Then bish-bash-bosh he's got confidence and is giving bants with the best of them. It felt too quick, too easy, and too advanced. However, I will confess that I was bone tired as I got to the end of the book so if I missed the long-drawn-out changes in behaviour and relapses forgive me. Also, anyone who cries as much as Paris does in this novel is clearly in need of support.

Overall, like the first book in this series, this mixes a well-known cosy, comic reality TV show with romance and some more serious issues. Can't wait for the next one.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

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