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May. 21st, 2015 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI am constantly amazed at how awful published fiction can be. I don't necessarily mean the writing quality, just the... world view, I guess. I picked something up because it was book 1 of at least 22 so if it's even readable then hey, something to do. From the cover and blurb it's clearly a 'shagging with a side of urban fantasy' story rather than my preferred 'urban fantasy with maybe shagging', but whatever, those seem popular. But I seem to have stalled half way through the book.
So the set up is that she's had sex precisely once in her life and it was so awful she's never bothered again. She's never felt physically attracted to a man. So her well meaning best friend gives her a book to summon a sex slave from beyond. And then when she won't do it the friend gets her drunk and finally gets her to say the chant.
So, thus far, so creepy. I mean, first of all, I wanted to ask her if she'd ever tried women, because judging by the amount of description she certainly seems to notice them. And if not, possibly she is ace? That being a thing that happens. And even if het, the best friend who will get someone drunk to get them laid is not in fact a friend but someone setting them up for noncon. Creeptastic.
But no, after summoning the supernatural sex slave, she continues to not want to have sex with him, and in fact seems disturbed when he seems to magically cause sex feelings. I know this is probably a lingering work around on the 'good girls don't' programmin, but it still reads a lot more like magic noncon. Creepy again.
And then she's the first person in two thousand years to summon him and not want sex, and that makes her so special he's going to marry her by the end of the book? Like, his sample is severely skewed. Also there's a curse involved. He's supposed to be literally irresistable. So everyone uses him for sex and no one treats him like a person, oh noes, and she's the first person in ever to understand how he feeeeels.
Also in between times he's locked in the book in the dark.
And now they're surprised by their attraction to each other.
So basically the book is saying they're both better than literal nothing, or actively painful being treated like a thing. So romantic!
Like, I know I've said it before, but finding someone who treats you like a human is not 'omg true love happily ever after', it's a minimum requirement.
After that you've got to figure out if your lives fit together on the important points, which in the books I read tend to include attitudes to killing vampires and so forth, and then if you can fit your lives and careers together, and get on with each other's families, etc etc etc
Making sure your characters have either no family or abusive family so they can finally find someone to make a family with... again, 'better than nothing' or 'better than awful' isn't as romantic as entire genres seem to think it is.
Fanfic is frequently so much better than this. Even fanfic built on the same premise. ... yes I've read plural stories where one or the other of the OTP was a summonable supernatural entity usually used as a sex slave. Humans, go figure.
So the set up is that she's had sex precisely once in her life and it was so awful she's never bothered again. She's never felt physically attracted to a man. So her well meaning best friend gives her a book to summon a sex slave from beyond. And then when she won't do it the friend gets her drunk and finally gets her to say the chant.
So, thus far, so creepy. I mean, first of all, I wanted to ask her if she'd ever tried women, because judging by the amount of description she certainly seems to notice them. And if not, possibly she is ace? That being a thing that happens. And even if het, the best friend who will get someone drunk to get them laid is not in fact a friend but someone setting them up for noncon. Creeptastic.
But no, after summoning the supernatural sex slave, she continues to not want to have sex with him, and in fact seems disturbed when he seems to magically cause sex feelings. I know this is probably a lingering work around on the 'good girls don't' programmin, but it still reads a lot more like magic noncon. Creepy again.
And then she's the first person in two thousand years to summon him and not want sex, and that makes her so special he's going to marry her by the end of the book? Like, his sample is severely skewed. Also there's a curse involved. He's supposed to be literally irresistable. So everyone uses him for sex and no one treats him like a person, oh noes, and she's the first person in ever to understand how he feeeeels.
Also in between times he's locked in the book in the dark.
And now they're surprised by their attraction to each other.
So basically the book is saying they're both better than literal nothing, or actively painful being treated like a thing. So romantic!
Like, I know I've said it before, but finding someone who treats you like a human is not 'omg true love happily ever after', it's a minimum requirement.
After that you've got to figure out if your lives fit together on the important points, which in the books I read tend to include attitudes to killing vampires and so forth, and then if you can fit your lives and careers together, and get on with each other's families, etc etc etc
Making sure your characters have either no family or abusive family so they can finally find someone to make a family with... again, 'better than nothing' or 'better than awful' isn't as romantic as entire genres seem to think it is.
Fanfic is frequently so much better than this. Even fanfic built on the same premise. ... yes I've read plural stories where one or the other of the OTP was a summonable supernatural entity usually used as a sex slave. Humans, go figure.
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Date: 2015-05-21 07:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-21 07:53 pm (UTC)