Doppelbänger: A Sci Fi MM Romance

This story 👌👌👌 A++ If you like mm romance with fun pop culture references and witty dialogue, you will love Doppelbanger. If you like sweet tenderness and self-discovery journeys that slap you in the face with huge emotions, you will definitely love Doppelbanger. Both the story and it’s characters are fun, hilarious, cute, touching, messy and reflective. This is the book I want to talk about to legitimately *anyone* whether or not they asked about it. I would be its walking billboard if I could. WH Lockwood did so so good and Good August is such a sweet, sweeeeeet, good boy.

This is a fun imaginative sci fi story about falling for yourself. 4.5 ⭐️ . The characters are aware about how weird it is so that is part of the humor and tone of the book. If you love traveling the multiverse you will find this a fun and enjoyable read. If you ever wondered which “sliding doors “ changed the direction of your life you will love this to. At the heart of it - it is a love story.

I am very conflicted about this book. I had big expectations. It got really good at about 60%, but before that it was the slowest fast burn I have ever read. At times it was tedious and I had to stop. It was like nothing was happening and yet I had gone over 100 pages and still nothing has happened. Some points of the book felt ridiculous. August just met August and he is already in love? From page 1? It could have started after page 100 and everything that hasn't happened yet. It would have been nice to have more of a build up to the feelings part of the story. All in all the plot was good, the writing style I loved, the finish was nice and the humour was on point. I guess you could call this the ultimate story of self love. 😀

The premise of the novel is irresistible. I like both the main two Augusts and Good August’s friends. Even Jon eventually becomes sympathetic. Once more characters join the fun, it truly does become confusing keeping track of who is saying or doing what. Lockwood does a decent job of giving us tags to help us, but it remains a challenge. Unavoidable, I suppose. For me, the story began to drag near the last hundred pages. I also grow tired of the conflation of sex and love, which is common in many romance novels. It’s not that the two lovers don’t demonstrate other behaviors that do indicate love, apart from the sex. It’s just that there’s so much sex, it begins to feel like that’s the main part of love. I did like Jon’s observation about daring to do things you’d never tell another partner, because you knew another you would understand. And I liked the theme of learning to love oneself, despite one’s failures and weaknesses, pointing out that we all have good in us, bad in us, mediocrity in us, and greatness. The novel illustrates well how easy it is for many of us to criticize ourselves, even loathe ourselves, but it’s difficult to learn to love ourselves. That theme, and the fun premise, make this a solid book, whatever other issues I might have with it.

Anything that falls into the realm of sci-fi is usually hit or miss for me, usually because a lot of the descriptions and heavy math and science that is described at times goes over my head and I feel dumb while reading it, this read was an absolute hit for me. While some of the science all went over my head a bit, I did not feel to bothered by I because the overall theory behind the science described in this book was pretty clear, and it did don’t take away from the experience of the book. I really loved how the book got progressively unhinged the farther into it I got. The interaction between the Augusts and the other side characters was comical, especially dear Jon who thankfully picked up some redeeming qualities by the end of the book. Within this comedic sci-fi adventure, there are some big emotional moments that will have your heart beating a little too hard at times. There were points in this book where my heart broke for both of the August’s and that trauma that they had to endure both collectible and individually, but to see the way that they begin to heal each other was really sweet. Each August recognizes that the other deserves love, and thankfully by the end of the book they realize that they also deserve it as well. This book really takes the whole “you need to learn to love yourself” idea to a whole new level. Overall I really enjoyed this read and if you are looking for something a whole lot chaotic mixed with spice then this is for you.