Reylos don’t deserve human rights
For this immortal phrase, an accurate and necessary assessment of the state of affairs in publishing today, I must credit a brilliant 1-star reviewer of The Love Hypothesis.
My absolute disdain for what reading this, for lack of a better word, book has done to me prevents me from being as succinct as they were.
Before we even get into the published fanfic of it all – the cover. I live for the day one of these creeps gets sued for using the faces of Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley on their published fanfics. They did nothing wrong, expect star in some bad movies that garnered them a fanbase of people who don’t understand the first thing about decency and propriety. Hint, it’s a little gauche to plaster the face of a famous actor on the cover for your self-insert fantasy about watching him masturbate in the shower and letting him eat you from behind.
Moving on. Nothing happens in this fanfic. Rey stumbles into a job – which turns out to be wearing a slave cuff for a wizard and being used as cattle (energy sources for their spellcasting). The author thinks confusing a clay spell tablet with a modern day tablet is charming and hilarious, to the point that the ‘joke’ is repeated about eight different times. I am not sure exactly when ‘wacky quirkiness’ becomes a mental deficiency, but about seven times in, I start to suspect the line might be behind us. Adam Driver, I mean Kylo Ren, I mean Ben Big Dick, I mean Ben Magnus, is a big old meanie jerk. Know how I know this? Everyone told me. His aunt Leia told me, her old assistant told me, Rey told me, the useless cat that appears whenever the author remembers there’s a cat in this fanfic told me, Sebastian jumped out of the pond with a chorus of singing frogs and told me… What’s that? Do we actually ever witness him being a mean old meanie grumpy grumps? Course not, don’t be silly. We’ve been told and that is so much better. Tell, don’t show. Besides, did I mention it’s Adam Driver and he’s wearing a black sweater? You know, the good boy Ben Solo sweater®. That’s all you really need as far as characterization goes. That and his huge hugeness that huges around.
Rey has an obligatory gay roommate who shows up when he needs to move the ‘plot’ along – you know how all your real life friends only live to facilitate hookups and wacky misunderstandings? Yeah, just like that. Leia lives only to get Ben’s dick wet, which is another brilliant aspect of this masterpiece. There is no magic system, no world building, no events really. We just follow these cardboard cutouts around kitchens and bedrooms and get notifications on the status of their genitalia. Which brings me to…
We get Adam Driver’s POV as well as Rey’s. It’s funny how a 500-year-od warlock sounds exactly like a 25-year-old girl who sounds exactly like your middle-aged aunt who gets all her cool hip sass from Minions memes on Facebook and witticisms on Twitter. Adam’s chapters only serve to update us on how high up the mast his cock is. Sees a freckle, half mast. She sings off-key, a mere twitch of the cock. She’s naked in his car, afraid for her life because she’s just been transformed into a cat and chased by a dog and almost killed – he’s straining out of his pants, you guys! I was so grateful to be told this crucial information because I, like all of you, wonder exactly hard and wet everyone who comes into contact with me is at all times. Finally, a book for me. And if you got the ick that Adam Driver is super turned on when a terrified naked woman is shaking and disassociating in his car, don’t. It’s totally hot and super duper romantic. My brain hurts, I have to move on from this.
The characters are absolute cardboard cutouts. Nobody has any personality at all. Yes, you are told Rey is an obnoxious compulsive cleaner who gets fired from jobs because her OCD is Harvey Weinstein-level bad at taking no for an answer, which is very admirable and quirky. Adam Driver is a mean old meanie, which we established before, and with that in mind, he, of course, shows nothing but restraint, cool headedness, introspection… And don’t get me wrong, it’s all written as if by a 13-year-old, but it’s utterly at odds with how everyone perceives him, himself included. The characters also completely contradict what little is established of their world and desires, and make utterly unmotivated and counter-productive decisions (that, naturally, never backfire). For example? Rey, a completely untrained witch/apprentice/human battery, walks into a gathering of witches and warlocks and has a, dare I say, Kylo Ren-esque sort of meltdown when one of the millennia-old, extremely powerful warlocks calls him out on his perceived misdeeds. An inevitable occurrence, which both Adam Driver and author self-insert were completely aware would take place. At an event they are attending in order to save Leia from a spooky scary Sleeping Beauty curse. So what’s the best way to get people on your side? Talk unprompted about how you’re dating Adam Driver because he fingered you down a well and call much more powerful people than you beta cucks. Because you’re an empowered female! I don’t know about you, but I certainly feel uplifted. Then hours later, steal a scene from Cassandra Clare (thank you to my bestie, who has been listening to me rant about this book while I was subjecting myself to it and who happened to know exactly what book was ripped off to bring us this glorious scene) and run away from the lOvE oF yOuR lIfE because you were hangry. And if you think I am exaggerating any of this, I get how you would, but I assure you I am not.
Character consistency is also on point. The Adam Driver character rhapsodizes about how smart, cool, intimidating, impressive and powerful he is, smirks and struts around hugely, talks about how big and huge and enticing his cock is and how great he is at fingering and eating ass, and then we are treated to self-deprecating inner monologues, about how he is so ugly compared to Rey, a ‘tall, pale giant with dark hairy legs and a weird face.’ Because you know how centuries-old millionaires who are over six feet tall and built like a brick shithouse and have women swooning over them are super low on self-esteem? It’s an epidemic really. And it’s damned good writing! I could give you literally a hundred more examples, but then I would just be copying the entire fanfic here.
The resolution to the big mystery of who put Leia in eternal sleep is some of the most laughable, underwhelming offal I’ve ever endured. It is honestly so embarrassing it does not deserve to be discussed.
Some more random icks the fanfic gave me – the constant fetishistic mention of freckles, as spank-bank material and a target for a load of cum, among others. The off-putting and borderline p-word insistence on describing Rey’s very very small, non-existent breasts and her pebbled nipples being lapped at and tuned as if Adam Driver were the last survivor in a dystopian future and he just stumbled upon a radio. The constant repetition. Because the fanfic has no plot and no characters, there is naturally no tension. So the same bloodless bits of angst, that could be solved either by thinking about them for about a minute or asking a simple question, are brought up dozens and dozens and dozens of times. Is magic real or not? I’ve been shown that it is multiple times, but I just don’t know… I should leave this job… But I need the money. But I’m just not sure… For about a hundred and fifty pages. Is Adam Driver good or bad? He’s been nothing but nice to me and he fingered me that one time down that one well and I watched him jerk off in a crystal ball, but I just don’t know…He did kill his parents that one time, but that was just because they caused the Bubonic Plague (and no, this is not a joke). I just don’t know…. For another one hundred and fifty pages.
In conclusion, my lifespan has been reduced by about a decade after reading this fanfic, I feel my brain losing function and ultimately, I was left feeling really sad for anyone who produces and intentionally consumes stuff like this. Life is beautiful and full of amazing works of art. You only get a limited amount of time on Earth and you will inevitably miss so many wonders because there is simply not enough time for all of them. Even in fanfiction, even in the genre of romance, there is better than this and we all deserve better.